In the last blog I talked about PART 1 of the
10 signs the Intensive Care team is not genuinely interested in your critically ill loved one and you! (PART 1)
You can check out the last blog by clicking on the link here.
In this week’s blog I want to talk about PART 2 of
the
10 signs the Intensive Care team isn’t interested in your critically ill loved one and you!(PART
2)
Before I get into today’s topic I want to share a quote with you that I wrote on today’s topic and the quote says
Most families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care when first confronted with this "once in a lifetime" experience of having
a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care have no idea and are absolutely clueless when dealing with the Intensive Care team!
They often don’t have the hint of an idea what to look for if they and their critically ill loved one are in the right hands and if they can trust and feel safe to put the life and health of their critically ill loved one in the
hands of strangers.
The fact of the matter is that whenever Intensive Care treatment is required for a critically ill Patient, the machinery that is Intensive Care is set in motion that you and your family are absolutely clueless about!
Intensive Care, the politics, the hierarchies, the competition for limited resources , the psychology, the dynamics and the intrigue tend to be so powerful that if you and your family don’t have the right advice at hands that you will keep struggling making informed decisions, getting peace of mind , control, power and influence!
If you and your family do have the right insights, the right advice and the right guidance, making informed decisions, getting peace of mind, control, power and influence will be easy and effortless because you can quickly see the cracks in the Intensive Care system and use those insights to your advantage.
If on the
other hand you do and copy the behaviour of 99% of the families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, you will stand no chance and you won’t be able to make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!
So let’s get into today’s topic. And let’s look at Part 2 of
10 signs the Intensive Care team isn’t interested in your critically ill loved one and you! (PART2)
6. The Intensive Care team is more concerned about their financial budget, their bed occupancy and medical research than front-line services that are of benefit to your critically ill loved one!
This one might not be all too obvious for you and your family, because chances are that you are so far outside of your comfort zone that you can’t see the wood for the trees.
But given that it’s not all too obvious for you and your family it’s even more important that you get a handle on this
quickly!
And given that 99% of the families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care make no informed decisions, have no peace of mind, no control, no power and no influence, you and your family need to pay even closer attention to what’s happening "behind the scenes" in Intensive Care!
Intensive Care budgets are often made up of different components and one of the components is medical
research.
From my perspective and also from my experience after more than 15 years Intensive Care nursing in three different countries, where I literally worked with thousands of critically ill Patients and their families and where I also have worked as a Nurse Unit Manager for more than five years, medical research is everywhere in ICU and it’s yet hidden away from families in Intensive Care!
Millions of $$$ Dollars of funding per year is poured into medical research in Intensive Care and it’s money
that’s being taken away from front-line services.
Related article/video:
Therefore in some instances, critically ill Patients in Intensive Care that are enrolled into medical research studies may get preferred treatment compared to critically ill Patients who are not enrolled into medical research studies.
Critically ill Patients who are not enrolled into a
medical research study or who are not eligible to be enrolled into a medical research study may attract less interest and also fewer resources allocated from the Intensive Care team.
Many critically ill Patients in Intensive Care are also often enrolled into medical research studies without their or their family’s written or verbal consent!
Financial budgets in Intensive Care, their bed management strategies in an environment where ICU beds are in ever increasing demand as well as the Intensive Care team’s interests in medical research make Intensive Care a highly unpredictable environment for families as well as for critically
ill Patients and if you don’t have an understanding of how ICU’s operate on a financial, bed management, operational and also clinical level, you may as well get together with the 99% of the families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care who make no informed decisions, have no peace of mind, no control, no power and no influence!
Understand and learn how Intensive Care Units operate on a financial,
bed management, hierarchical, political, psychological and clinical level you’ll be ahead of the game and you’ll have tools and insights at your disposal that help you to start managing the Intensive Care team!
All progress in life starts with facing and understanding the truth!
Recommended:
7. The Intensive Care team is trying to avoid
you
That's another one of my favourites.
Intensive Care teams are often trying to avoid families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care!
They are trying to avoid them especially when it comes to having difficult
conversations!
They all pretend to be busy and therefore they are often trying to avoid you and your family at all cost and only step forward when it’s convenient for them!
You can almost always be certain that if the Intensive Care team is trying to avoid you and your questions that they are not being open,
transparent and honest with you!
You can almost also be certain that by the time they are going to want to meet you that they want to do so on their terms and not on your terms!
They have set the scene by letting you wait and when they are ready to meet they often want to do so in a setting that suits them and not
you.
By the time the Intensive Care team is asking for a "formal family meeting" most families in Intensive Care are doomed because they haven’t seen it coming, they don’t know what to expect and they don’t know where to go from here.
They don’t know that the Intensive Care team has a clearly mapped out strategy when going into a family meeting, whereas you and your family don’t have a strategy unless you have the right tools,
insights and tactics at hand!
Recommended:
8. The Intensive Care team is making decisions without asking you!
Now, Intensive Care teams need to make decisions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days in a year!
It’s the nature of the environment and it’s the nature of Intensive Care, because it’s such a dynamic and volatile environment!
It would be of no benefit to anyone if the Intensive Care team asked you about every little decision they have to make!
However, when working in Intensive Care or when working with my clients 1:1 in my counselling and consulting practice I have found that the more difficult and challenging the situation is the more families need to be involved and informed in decision making.
For example if your critically ill loved one is either
you and your family need to be transparently informed and
also involved in the decision making process to ensure you and your family get the best outcomes for your critically ill loved one!
Especially when it comes to issues like "NFR" (not for resuscitation) or "DNR" (Do not resuscitate) orders, as well as "withdrawal of treatment" or "limitation of treatment" situations Intensive Care teams can be pretty ruthless and make decisions
for you, for your family and for your critically ill loved one that you most likely won’t agree with!
And again, we are talking life or death decisions!
Last week I was working with two clients and both clients felt pressured to agree to “withdraw treatment” on their critically ill loved one as being “in their best interest”!
The
family members of my clients who are critically ill in Intensive Care also both had "NFR" (not for resuscitation)/ "DNR"(Do not resuscitate) orders issued by the Intensive Care team without the Intensive Care team informing them and breaching their own policies.
Both clients engaged my 1:1 counselling and consulting services and with my insights, help, strategies and negotiation skills we managed to get both NFR's/DNR's revoked and both of my clients’ family members in Intensive Care are still alive.
Recommended:
9. The Intensive Care team is giving you and
your family limited access to your critically ill loved one by limiting visiting hours!
I'm still shocked and amazed to find that some Intensive Care Units still have limiting and restricted visiting hours that feel like they are from the 1950’s!
Some Intensive Care Units still lock out
families in Intensive Care for most of the day and have visiting times from 10am-12pm and 4pm-8pm.
It makes you wonder what Intensive Care Units have to hide...
It really makes you wonder how transparent and family friendly Intensive Care Units are in their dealings with their families?
Recommended articles/videos:
10. The Intensive Care team is delegating important communication to junior doctors and junior nurses
It's another one of my favourites where the senior medical staff is trying to delegate difficult and important communication to inexperienced and junior doctors or
nurses.
It’s a clear sign that they don’t want to deal with you and your family, in fact it’s quite condescending if anything!
And I see it over and over again!
What happens is that some of the senior medical staff or some of
the senior nursing staff don’t want to deliver you and your family bad news and they delegate this to junior staff, medical or nursing.
It’s a clear sign of disengagement and it’s a clear sign that they are jaded of dealing with families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care!
They can’t face the mark and they
are not skilled enough to have difficult conversations and they also want to wash their hands clean!
This is a strategy that’s doomed to fail especially if you have been following my blog here for a while! Because I can help you and your family very quickly to make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!
Your friend
Patrik Hutzel
PS: I only have one slot left for counselling/consulting left for this week, as I'm fully booked otherwise. Let me know if you want the one slot left by hitting reply to this email or by calling me on one of the numbers below!
phone 415- 915-0090 in the USA/Canada
phone 03- 8658 2138 in Australia/ New Zealand
phone 0118 324 3018 in the UK/Ireland
If you have a question you need answered, just hit reply to this email or send it to me at support@intensivecarehotline.com
Or if you want to be featured on our PODCAST with your story, just email me at support@intensivecarehotline.com
phone 415-915-0090 in the USA/Canada 
phone 03 8658 2138 in Australia/ New Zealand 
phone 0118 324 3018 in the UK/ Ireland 
Phone now on Skype at patrik.hutzel
PS: Keep your eye out on a couple of new Ebooks that I will be publishing soon!
Your Friend
Patrik Hutzel
Critical Care Nurse
Founder& Editor
WWW.INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM
