The effect of the intensive therapy ward environment on patients' subjective impression: a follow-up study.

One hundred consecutive patients who had been treated in a new purpose-built surgical intensive therapy ward (ITU) completed a questionary recording their impressions of their stay. Their replies were then compared with the results of a similar survey done in the same hospital ten years previously when the ITU was part of a converted open-plan ward. Most patients still found the ward pleasant but difficulty in sleeping and resting was still the commonest complaint (27%), despite the patients being nursed in individual rooms. The subjective impressions reported did not reflect any advantage to the patients from being nursed in individual rooms.