The communication between families of critically ill patients who manifest prolonged disturbances in the consciousness such as patients under sedation, in a coma, or delirium, and the caregivers became very difficult during the stay of the patient in the ICU.

On the other side, the memories of the patients are distressing and confusing and make the ICU experience for this patient very unpleasant.

To overcome these difficulties and to bridge the communication, written diaries by nurses and families for and to the patients are recommended during the ICU stay.

You will get a more detailed description of ICU diaries from the guests in our next podcast – the first one of 2024 from the ESICM N&AHP group.

Professional burnout has been described by WHO as a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. Intensive care unit (ICU) professionals are at high risk of experiencing burnout due to the presence of patients with life-threatening illnesses, the observed discrepancies in job demands, responsibility overload, workload, end-of-life issues, perception of futility and other constituting potential stressors. To talk about the prevalence, outcomes, ethical implications and management strategies of ICU professional burnout we have interviewed Dr. Michalsen. Listen to the interview in the following podcast.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) remains a life-threatening syndrome, resulting in high morbidity and mortality. In ARDS patients and mechanically ventilated critically ill patients, two distinct subphenotypes, presenting hyper- and non-hyperinflammatory characteristics, have been identified.

Studies show that early identification of the inflammatory subphenotypes in patients at risk of ARDS could serve as a predictive or prognostic strategy that will lead to an early intervention and individualization of care.

A study has been carried out to prove the hypothesis that the inflammatory subphenotypes are present before ARDS development in at-risk patients presenting to the emergency department and remain identifiable over time.

To learn more about the methods and findings of this study listen to the next podcast.