Patients’ and Relatives’ Experiences of Delirium in the Intensive Care Unit—A Qualitative Study

Sandra Lange (), Wioletta Mędrzycka-Dąbrowska, Adriano Friganović, Dorota Religa and Sabina Krupa
Additional contact information
Sandra Lange: Department of Internal and Pediatric Nursing, Medical University of Gdańsk, Dębinki 7, 80-211 Gdańsk, Poland
Wioletta Mędrzycka-Dąbrowska: Department of Anaesthesiology Nursing & Intensive Care, Faculty of Health Sciences, Medical University of Gdańsk, Dębinki 7, 80-211 Gdańsk, Poland
Adriano Friganović: Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Medicine, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Dorota Religa: Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS), Karolinska Institute, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden
Sabina Krupa: Institute of Health Sciences, College of Medical Sciences, University of Rzeszow, Warzywna 1A, 35-310 Rzeszow, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-12

Abstract: (1) Introduction: Delirium is a cognitive disorder that affects up to 80% of ICU patients and has many negative consequences. The occurrence of delirium in an ICU patient also negatively affects the relatives caring for these patients. The aim of this study was to explore patients’ and their families’ experiences of delirium during their ICU stay. (2) Method: The study used a qualitative design based on phenomenology as a research method. A semi-structured interview method was used to achieve the aim. The responses of patients and their families were recorded and transcribed, and the data were coded and analyzed. (3) Results: Eight interviews were conducted with past ICU patients who developed delirium during hospitalization and their family members. The mean age of the participants was 71 years. Of the eight patients, 2 (25%) were female and 6 (75%) were male. The relationships of the 8 carers with the patients were wife (in 4 cases), daughter (in 2 cases), and son (in 2 cases). The average length of time a patient stayed in the ICU was 24 days. The following themes were extracted from the interviews: education, feelings before the delirium, pain, thirst, the day after, talking to the family/patient, and return home. (4) Conclusions: Post-delirium patients and their families feel that more emphasis should be placed on information about delirium. Most patients feel embarrassed and ashamed about events during a delirium episode. Patients fear the reaction of their families when delirium occurs. Patients’ families are not concerned about their relatives returning home and believe that the home environment will allow them to forget the delirium events more quickly during hospitalization.

Keywords: delirium; patients; family relations; family-centered care (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11601/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11601/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:18:p:11601-:d:915234

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().