Hi, it's Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM , where we instantly improve the lives of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, so that you can have PEACE OF MIND, real power, real control and so that you can influence decision making fast, even if you're not a doctor or a nurse in Intensive Care!

In last week's blog I've shown you "Why decision making in Intensive Care GOES WAY BEYOND your critically ill loved one's diagnosis and prognosis!" You can check out last week's blog here.

In this week's blog I want to give you some insights about Why Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care need to aim higher!

You see it's very easy to get bogged down, to become negative, even to become cynical if your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care. After all, life can be extremely challenging during this often "once in a lifetime" experience, whilst your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care.

This is particularly true if your critically ill loved one is going through one of the biggest challenges

There are in Intensive Care such as

• They are very unstable and in a very critical condition
• They are in a life threatening situation
• They are in Intensive Care for long-term treatments and long-term stays
• They are approaching their end of life in Intensive Care

Those situations will be one of the biggest challenges in your lifetime and those situations will test your beliefs, your strength, your values, your patience and they will also test how much PEACE OF MIND, power, control and influence you have during those challenging and difficult situations.

After all you and your Family have been conditioned by society that Hospitals and Doctors "know it all" and that they must know "what's best..."

After all, society has told you that doctors and nurses are very smart people. They must have all the answers...

And that's even more true when it comes to an environment like Intensive Care...

And often the strictly academic view by the Intensive Care team leaves your and your Family's real needs out of the equation

And often the Intensive Care team has all the answers, but only from their perspective, by only and strictly viewing the issues from their perspective. And their perspective is more often than not purely academic, it's driven by the politics, by the dynamics in Intensive Care, by the politics, by the intrigue, by the power play and by the psychology in a busy and stressful Intensive Care Unit.

You also need to know and understand that by you buying into the mindset and views of the Intensive Care team in those difficult and challenging situations that I pointed out before, you and your Family are limiting yourself to the point where you have no or limited PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence.

The Intensive Care team is trying to undermine your decision making authority!

However the situation looks like that your critically ill loved one, you and your Family are in, your biggest challenge is to make sure that you are forming an opinion and a view about the situation irrespective of what the Intensive Care team is telling you.

You see, one of the things the Intensive Care team is not doing, is empowering you in your decision making capacity and in your decision making ability.

99% of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care have no control, power and influence, let alone PEACE OF MIND and they never will, because they just take for FACE VALUE whatever the Intensive Care team is telling them and they are making a big mistake...

Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care are not aiming high enough

99% of Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care will never have PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence because they are not aiming high enough and they are buying into the perceived power of the Intensive Care team.

It makes me very angry and frustrated to find that Families of critically ill Patients are not aiming higher and if I have learned one thing after more than 15 years of Intensive Care nursing in three different countries, it is that Families need to stop being intimidated by the Intensive Care team, they need to stop thinking that they have no or not enough knowledge about Intensive Care and the list could go on...

Related Article:

How to stop being intimidated by the Intensive Care team

The bottom line is that you and your Family need to aim higher in whatever you pursue for your critically ill loved one and the reality is that if you do that, it often won't be in alignment with what the Intensive Care team wants or suggests.

In fact it'll often be contrary to what the Intensive Care team wants and suggests.

I give you a few real world examples here:  

If your critically ill loved has been in Intensive Care for two months and is not moving forward because of theirventilator dependency with Tracheostomy you can see that yourloved one is depressed and has no Quality of life. The Intensive Care team might suggest to you that a "withdrawal" or a "limitation of treatment" might be "in the best interest" of your critically ill loved one. So in essence, the Intensive Care team is suggesting that it's "in the best interest" to let your loved one die...

The Intensive Care team is not telling you that in some countries such as Australia and 

Germany, INTENSIVE HOME CARE services are a viable and genuine option for long-term ventilated Adults& Children with Tracheostomy such as INTENSIVE CARE AT HOME services WWW.INTENSIVECAREATHOME.COM.AU and the Intensive Care team also isn't telling you that they desperately need the bed your critically ill loved one is currently occupying, because they have other admission waiting for that bed. 

The Intensive Care team also isn't telling you that they have deemed your loved one's case as non- financially viable and they therefore want to move on to other Patients where they can make more money...

The Intensive Care team hasn't told you that they think you and your Family don't really understand what's going on

The Intensive Care team also hasn't told you that they think that you and your Family don't really know and understand what's really going on and they also think that you and your Family haven't asked too many difficult questions, therefore the Intensive Care team thinks that it's easy for them to get what they want because you and your Family are perceived as weak, without control, power and influence...

Your job is to educate yourself quickly, ask the right questions and have a vision for what you want for your critically ill loved one, irrespective of the Intensive Care team's view, because their view is often driven by politics and power play...

Your job is to aim higher!

I have more examples for you from the real world that will help you to aim higher...

What if your critically ill loved one is approaching their end of life in Intensive Care and what if the Intensive Care team has come back to you to tell you that they want to continue treatment because they think that your critically ill loved one has a chance to live...

What they haven't told you is that your critically ill loved one is falling into a research category, where the Intensive Care team can conduct some medical research or they can trial a drug and so forth...

Medical research attracts 5, 6 or even 7 figure $$$ funding and if your critically ill loved one is dying and you and your Family don't really know what's going on and if you don't know what's happening "BEHIND THE SCENES" in Intensive Care, the Intensive Care team will have an easy time playing their games with you, your Family and with your critically ill loved one...

The reality is that I have seen many situations in Intensive Care where critically ill Patients have been approaching their end of life and the Intensive Care team suggested to continue treatment because they had research interests and they only prolonged the suffering of those Patients.

Those Patients died anyway but only after unnecessary and prolonged suffering and after the Intensive Care team has "sold" Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care that continuing treatment would be "in the best interest" of the Patient.

Once again, your and your Family's job is to educate yourself quickly and then you need to aim higher

And you need to start asking for what you want. Don't worry about what the Intensive Care team wants or thinks, you know more than you think you do...

Follow what you've learned here and you can't go wrong, follow your gut feeling and you can't go wrong.

If you think that the Intensive Care team has something to hide, they probably have...

Check out the full article here http://intensivecarehotline.com/families-critically-ill-patients-intensive-care-need-aim-higher/

Also, check out our "YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED" section

where I answer all of YOUR questions

http://intensivecarehotline.com/category/questions/

In this week I answer another one of OUR MOST Frequently Asked Questions

How LONG does it take to WAKE up AFTER being VENTILATED?

Find the answer to this question here http://intensivecarehotline.com/long-take-wake-ventilated/

If you want your questions answered just hit reply to this email or email me at support@intensivecarehotline.com and I'll answer your questions!

Also keep an eye out for our upcoming product launch in the next couple of months! We are NOW finalizing our first product that will help Families of critically ill Patients deal with and take control of most situations in Intensive Care, even if their loved one is dying!

 The product will be an "IN-DEPTH" education product for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care and a SHORTCUT for Families to control, power& influence! The focus of the education product will be on PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence during the following situations in Intensive Care

• long-term stays in Intensive Care 
• end- of- life situations
• Family meetings
• withdrawal of treatment situations and/or perceived medical futility

 The product will be made available in Ebook, Video and Audio format so that our Customers can consume the product in their chosen medium!

 If you have any questions about our upcoming products or if you have any suggestions please let me know at support@intensivecarehotline.com

Your Friend

Patrik Hutzel

Critical Care Nurse

Founder& Editor

WWW.INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM