How to humanise the COVID-19 intensive care units

• Published in: BMJ evidence-based medicine Vol. 26; no. 4; pp. 141 - 142
• Main Authors: Rivi, Veronica, Melegari, Gabriele, Blom, Johanna M.C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 01.08.2021; BMJ Publishing Group LTD
• Subjects: Anxiety; Behavior modification; Communication; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Critical care; Editorial; Emergency medical care; Epidemics; Evidence-based medicine; Health care; Intensive care; Medical personnel; Meditation; mental disorders; Music therapy; Palliative care; Pandemics; Patients; psychological phenomena; Stress; critical care; psychological phenomena; mental disorders
• ISSN: 2515-446X; 2515-4478
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjebm-2020-111513

In this hectic period of emergency care and human needs, the stretched and often overburdened healthcare workforce is called to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak both clinically and humanely.5 6 That means not only providing patients with excellent medical care through the appropriate treatment and supportive measures but also taking care of their emotional well-being continuing to promote and ensure the humanisation of the intensive care unit (ICU).7 Doctors and nurses cannot go into a patient’s room unless strictly necessary and only if they wear masks and are completely covered with protective equipment. [...]if infrastructure and model of care permits, non-pharmacological interventions, like progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery, music therapy and meditation, could be proposed to both patients and families for alleviating pain, discomfort and anxiety.10–12 Furthermore, where appropriate, the use of personal tablets and mobiles could represent a valid strategy to allow patients to maintain contact their relatives. Contributors The authors confirm their authorship according to the following criteria: have made substantial contributions to conception and design, or acquisition of data or analysis and interpretation of data; been involved in drafting the manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content; given final approval of the version to be published; each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for appropriate portions of the content; and agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.