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. 2023 Jun:76:103392.
doi: 10.1016/j.iccn.2023.103392. Epub 2023 Jan 24.

Thematic analysis of intensive care unit diaries kept by staff: insights for caring

Alessandro Galazzi  1 , Martina Bruno  1 , Filippo Binda  2 , Giorgia Caddeo  3 , Monica Chierichetti  3 , Paola Roselli  3 , Giacomo Grasselli  4 , Dario Laquintana  1
Affiliations

Thematic analysis of intensive care unit diaries kept by staff: insights for caring

Alessandro Galazzi et al. Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: To explore recurrent themes in diaries kept by intensive care unit (ICU) staff during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Design: Qualitative study.

Setting: Two ICUs in a tertiary level hospital (Milan, Italy) from January to December 2021.

Methods: ICU staff members wrote a digital diary while caring for adult patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit for >48 hours. A thematic analysis was performed.

Findings: Diary entries described what happened and expressed emotions. Thematic analysis of 518 entries gleaned from 48 diaries identified four themes (plus ten subthemes): Presenting (Places and people; Diary project), Intensive Care Unit Stay (Clinical events; What the patient does; Patient support), Outside the Hospital (Family and topical events; The weather), Feelings and Thoughts (Encouragement and wishes; Farewell; Considerations).

Conclusion: The themes were similar to published findings. They offer insight into care in an intensive care unit during a pandemic, with scarce resources and no family visitors permitted, reflecting on the patient as a person and on daily care. The staff wrote farewell entries to dying patients even though no one would read them.

Implications for clinical practice: The implementation of digital diaries kept by intensive care unit staff is feasible even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Diaries kept by staff can provide a tool to humanize critical care. Staff can improve their work by reflecting on diary records.

Keywords: COVID-19; Diary; Digital diary; Humanizing; Intensive care unit; Qualitative research; Thematic analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Themes and subthemes identified.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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