PAIN IS REAL BUT SO IS HOPE…. BE YOUR PATIENTS’ HOPE…
ICU psychosis, a severe mental derangement that presents with psychiatric symptoms in a patient without any known history of mental health, which takes place especially when in delusions and lack of contact with the external world. This condition is quite distressing to both the patient as well as their family.
One of my patients, post the Liver transplant surgery, had a longer recovery period due to unforeseen complications. As he battled a life-threatening condition, he developed ICU psychosis and felt disoriented. He got into his shell and remained mute as he was afraid for his life while starting to lose hope and confidence.
I felt that the patient/clinician relationship is one of the keystones of therapy and thereby I made it a point to devote some extra time to listen to him by empathizing with his physical condition and making him feel that he was in safe hands.
Furthermore, me along with my team wheeled him out of the ICU exposing him to the sunlight and made him get a little fresh air. The reason being, exposure to natural light helps to improve your mood by making you stay calm and focused. This extra little effort from our side was quite helpful in the patient’s rehabilitation and made him feel extremely soulful and reassured. This extra little effort from our side was quite helpful in the patient’s rehabilitation which made him feel extremely soulful, reassured and get discharged from the hospital to live a quality life!!!
Message to all my fellow colleagues through this experience of mine is that, all we need to do is, to spend a little more extra time from your busy schedule to afford that additional care and attention to our patients. A simple gesture of holding their hands and making them feel that they are not doing this alone and you are always with them right there to overcome their ill health. By going that extra mile, we tend to play a major role in our patients’ recovery.
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