How diaries can improve the experience of intensive care patients.

Post-discharge intensive care unit (ICU) patients are often left with psychological problems and, while follow-up clinics and patient support groups are the best way to manage these problems, they are difficult to set up in the current economic climate. Staff in the ICU at Royal Gwent Hospital have started using patient diaries to reduce the risk of long-term psychological effects. Diary entries are made by nurses, other multidisciplinary ICU team members, and family members and friends to provide patients with complete narratives and visual records of their time in the unit.