For families
Someone you love is in intensive care and nobody has explained anything yet.
That is the most common experience of the first day, and it is not because information is being withheld. It is because everyone in the room is doing something that cannot pause. These pages cover what we would tell you if there were time to sit down.
What happens when your relative is admitted to intensive care
The first few hours, why you may be asked to wait, and what the team is doing while you do.
Read
The machines at the bedside, explained plainly
What each piece of equipment does, in language nobody uses at the bedside but everybody needs.
Read
How to get clear information from the clinical team
Who to ask, when to ask, and the specific questions that produce useful answers.
Read
The words you will hear, and what they actually mean
A plain glossary of the terms used at the bedside and on the ward round.
Read
Looking after yourself while someone you love is in intensive care
This is a marathon. Families who exhaust themselves in week one are no use in week three.
ReadStill not sure what to ask?
Nobody absorbs this kind of information the first time it is said. Call the unit and ask again, as many times as you need to. It is never an imposition.
Visiting
Visiting the unit
Intensive care visiting is more restricted than on a general ward, and for reasons that are clinical rather than bureaucratic: infection risk, the need for space around the bed during procedures, and the patient's need for rest.
- Visiting hours
- 10:00am to 4:00pm, daily
- At the bedside
- Up to five minutes per visit, so patients can rest and infection risk stays low
- Longer visits
- Arranged with the nurse in charge where a patient is critically unwell
- Children
- By prior arrangement with the nurse in charge
- Before you enter
- Wash your hands, wear the gown provided, and leave bags outside the unit
- Food and drink
- Please ask the nurse before giving anything at all, including water
- During procedures
- You may be asked to step out briefly. It is routine and not a bad sign.
- End of life
- Restrictions are relaxed. Family may stay, and a religious leader of any faith can be called at any hour.
Whatever the published hours, please do not bring food or drink for the patient without asking the nurse first. Many patients cannot swallow safely, are nil by mouth, or are on a strictly measured fluid allowance.
Updates
How updates work
Please nominate one family spokesperson who receives updates and passes them on. When eight relatives call separately, staff spend hours repeating themselves and the family ends up with eight slightly different versions of the same news.
Avoid calling during shift handover and the morning ward round. Ask the nurse in charge which times are best and you will get a fuller answer. For a detailed discussion, ask for a scheduled meeting with the consultant.
Next step
Ask us anything, more than once if you need to.
Nobody absorbs this kind of information the first time it is said. There is no such thing as asking too often.