Ealing Hospital Aiming to Demystify Intensive Care
Large-scale schematics and a patient information guide installed
Ealing Hospital ICU staff with the new guide
Visitors to Ealing Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) should be able to get a better understanding of the unit’s work with the installation of large-scale schematics and a patient information guide.
These illustrate how equipment is used to help patients in one of the most technologically advanced areas of a hospital.
The floor to ceiling illustrations at Ealing Hospital were prompted by the return of visitors following the second wave of the pandemic and need to reassure and inform them about the equipment and people who were caring for their loved ones.
Intensive Care consultant Mike O’Connor said, “ICUs can look like something out of a science fiction film to first-time visitors. It can be a daunting environment for people especially when their loved one is critically unwell. Hopefully by demystifying some of the lines, tubes, monitors and kit relatives can focus on their loved one at the centre of it.
“Everyone visiting a relative or friend on the ICU receives a guide based on the mural illustrating a bedspace in the unit. It describes the roles of various professionals involved in the care of patients along with advice for relatives. The feedback from patients, relatives and friends has been really positive.”
Emergency Medicine Registrar Callum Kirk, who was the driving force behind the project, added, “ICUs are very dramatic and fast paced on TV shows but, in reality, it is often a slower more measured environment where small adjustments are made to patients’ conditions. They are generally calm places.
Detail of the schematic being used at Ealing Hospital
“There is a lot of machinery around but it is important to remember there is a person in the middle of it all and it is the humans caring for them that helps them recover. ICU is much more than the machines.”
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
August 17, 2022