ICU Steps: Patient and relative experiences of critical illness

Summary

For many people involvement with intensive care is a daunting experience. For some it's part of the care plan after major surgery but for many others it's a sudden and unexpected event.You find yourself in an alien environment unlike any you've known before where patients are connected to all kinds of machines and drips, where you might not be able to tell day from night and where there's constant noise and activity.

The people that work in the Intensive Care Unit do an amazing job, but even when patients are on the road to recovery they still have a long way to go before they're fully better. Depending on how ill the patient has been, recovery can take a year or more. Knowing what might lie ahead and also that you're not alone in what you're going through can be a great help for both patients and relatives. 

This webpage set up by ICU Steps, include experiences from patients and relatives as they have spent time on the intensive care unit.