Annual Report 2007

ICUsteps - Annual Report 2007

In addition to the six-weekly drop-in sessions in Milton Keynes the past year ICUsteps has continued to promote the need for additional care and support for intensive care patients and their relatives following discharge from hospital.

As well as being a stakeholder in the NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) guideline on care of acutely ill adult patients in hospital, we were represented on the guideline's development group by one of our board members. We also took an active role in reviewing and commenting on the draft guidance which was published in July 2007.

In September 2007, members of ICUsteps presented to the annual conference of the BACCN (British Association of Critical Care Nurses) on "Developing and setting up a patients and relatives intensive care support group" which was well received. As a direct result we were asked to repeat the presentation to a meeting of the West Yorkshire Critical Care Network in December. Following the presentation at the BACCN conference we were approached by the editor of the medical journal 'Nursing in Critical Care' who asked if we would be willing to submit an article for publication in his journal based on the presentation. This article has now been written and submitted for review prior to publication.

The design and structure of the ICUsteps website was updated in June and has seen increasing levels of traffic. Statistics for 2007 reported that the site had received 3,800 different visitors through the year and served over 31,000 page impressions. The contact facilities on the website allowed a number of patients who had been struggling to come to terms with their recovery from critical illness to reach others who could understand what they had been through. After corresponding via email, bulletin board and in two cases attending a drop-in session the feedback was universally positive that being able to reach others who understood what they had been through helped them cope in their own recovery.

The website has also been a point of contact for medical staff. In May 2007 we were contacted by nurses who were writing information leaflets for their hospital which had no follow-up service and asked if ICUsteps would review their leaflets and comment from a patient perspective which we did. This enquiry sparked the idea that ICUsteps should produce its own comprehensive booklet on all the stages of critical illness, from admission through to rehabilitation. The aim is to produce a booklet that will ensure this information is available to patients and relatives, is of a high and consistent standard and is as accessible to the general public as possible. To this end a draft booklet was produced and in September 2007 was sent to organisations with an interest in the care of the critically ill for consultation. The consultation period came to a close in December 2007 and the comments are now being reviewed and a second draft produced. Funds to help with this project have been raised by a former intensive care patient and the Department of Health. Additional funding is being sought to allow for copies of the finalised booklet to be printed and distributed to intensive care units nationally.

The drop-in sessions continue to be well received by those who attend and the session on the 24th January 2008 immediately prior to the Annual and General Meeting will be our 21st.