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Families in Critical Care Settings: Where Fear Leads to Silence

1988; University of Alberta Library; Linguagem: Inglês

10.29173/pandp15082

0820-9189

Marlene Z. Cohen, Martha J. Craft, Marita G. Titler,

Family and Patient Care in Intensive Care Units

Sarah Hargrove1 is a 40-year-old grocery store clerk who has had asthma for a number of years.This attack, the most severe she has ever had, began with a viral infection which progressed until she had so much difficulty breathing that her husband took her to the emergency room of a small local hospi tal.The local hospital admitted her but later decided to transport her by helicopter to a large teaching hospital 60 miles away.Sarah's husband Jack is a 42-year-old farmer.He is a large, quiet man who told us seeing his wife in the intensive care unit "don't bother me too much."Don is Sarah and Jack's youngest child.He is 11 years old and said, "it is just not the same around the house without" his mother.We did not speak with his 15-year-old or 21-year-old brothers.Karen is a 25-year-old nurse who cared for Mrs. Hargrove in the intensive care unit.She has had three years of nursing ex perience, two of those in critical care settinge.Each of these people describes a different experience.We ex plored these experiences in a study designed to better under stand the impact of critical care hospitalization.A Portrait of the Family Mrs. Hargrove told us: I was extremely scared.You did not really know what was hap pening except that I did not feel right.But I had a lot of faith that they were going to make it so I could breathe.This was my biggest thing-not being able to breathe.And I thought I was dying, I really did.I was very scared....