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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM , where we instantly improve the lives for Families of critically ill Patients in Intensive Care, so that you can make informed decisions, have peace of mind, real power, real control and so that you can influence decision making fast, even if you’re not a doctor or a nurse in Intensive Care!
In the last blog I talked about Part 2 of
You can check out last week’s blog by clicking on the link here and you can also check out Part1 of “The 10 signs to look for if your critically ill loved one is in the right Intensive Care Unit!(Part 1)” here
In this week’s blog I want to talk about
The 7 most dangerous trends families of critically ill Patients are currently facing in Intensive Care! (PART1)
Before I get into today’s topic I want to share a quote with you that I wrote on today’s topic and the quote says
A trend is defined as “a general direction in which something is developing or changing”.
It’s therefore that you and your family need to be familiar with the latest trends and developments in ICU if your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care!
A trend sounds like it’s something fashionable or even desirable, however when it comes to your loved one’s critical illness in Intensive Care all you care about is results and outcomes not trends!
Intensive Care teams take different viewpoints and from their perspective it often is about the latest “trends” in Intensive Care and how it applies to your critically ill loved one’s care and treatment!
The truth of the matter is that the “latest trends” in Intensive Care often include medical research and experimentation beyond your imagination that may or not be in your critically ill loved one’s “best interest”!
Your role, as always, is to ensure that your critically ill loved one is getting the best, most “up to date” and free from bias care and treatment!
Care and treatment in Intensive Care must never be a result of what’s happening “behind the scenes” in Intensive Care, where hidden agendas often rule and may result in inferior care and treatment!
Let’s get into today’s topic!
After more than 15 years Intensive Care nursing in three different countries where I literally worked with thousands of critically ill Patients and their families and where I have also worked as a Nurse Unit Manager for more than 5 years, I have seen a lot of “trends” come and go in Intensive Care.
I also have a very good feeling what’s currently “trending” in Intensive Care, not only because I’m still working in the environment on a part time basis, I also have a very good understanding because of my constant interactions with you, a family member who has a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care!
The interactions I have with you are through my 1:1 phone/skype counselling/ consultation service or through my 1:1 email counselling/consultation service!
Trends as you are well aware can come and go. They can be fads and they can also grow into something bigger!
The bottom line is that most of the current trends in Intensive Care worry me deeply and I believe if you don’t know about these trends you, your family and your critically ill loved one will be in big trouble!
Therefore let’s start and get right into it.
- Medical research in Intensive Care
Unbeknownst to most families in Intensive Care, Medical research is everywhere in ICU. The fact of the matter is that there is a high likelihood that your critically ill loved one may be enrolled in a medical research study without you, your family or your critically ill loved one knowing or let alone having given either written or verbal consent to it.
This could mean that the Intensive Care team is trialling a new drug, a new piece of equipment or sometimes even trialling conservative management(=no surgery) vs surgery as part of a medical research study!
WTF???
I could fill an entire book about medical research studies that I have come across in Intensive Care and I have found most of them highly questionable.
I do believe that medical research has its time and its place but certainly not with the most vulnerable Patient group that there are, which are Intensive Care Patients.
I do believe that medical research in Intensive Care has gone completely out of hand and the money that’s attached to it has uncontrollably spiralled into the Millions and tens of Millions of $$$ Dollars(or £ if you’re in the UK) per year in individual ICU’s.
Therefore the stakes are extremely high for Intensive Care teams to get their hands on funding for medical research because it has become such a massive revenue driver!
Medical research has also become a discipline where some Intensive Care Units are trying to build their reputation on. The more medical research, the more revenue, the more medical research papers they can publish and the better their public reputation and so forth…
From my perspective, Medical research is often highly questionable from an ethical and moral point of view and it’s not transparent most of the time!
There is way too much stuff happening “behind the scenes” or “behind the curtains” in ICU, where you as a family member of a critically ill Patient in Intensive Care have no idea about and no control over.
The bottom line is that if your critically ill loved one is
you don’t want to have the Intensive Care team “experiment” with your critically ill loved one and conduct Medical research on them. That’s not what you or your critically ill loved one signed up for.
The truth of the matter is that Medical research in Intensive Care has gone out of hand because of the $$$ Dollar figures and the prestige that comes attached to it.
Live saving front line services often suffer as a consequence of it, because money and other resources have been reallocated where certain Patients who are (often secretly) enrolled in a medical research study are given preference above other critically ill Patients.
Unless you have insider knowledge like I do, this will play out in ways that only an insider can identify, evaluate and also manage.
Look up some Intensive Care Units websites, they literally “brag” about their medical research activities, the funding attached to it and the medical research papers they publish. It’s all in the name of science and academia and frontline health services are paying the price.
What the Intensive Care team hasn’t told you is that if they try and “sell” you and your critically ill loved one on a “withdrawal of treatment” or a “limitation of treatment” as being “in the best interest” of your critically ill loved one, they haven’t told you that your loved one hasn’t been enrolled in a medical research study and therefore they have lost interest in your loved one’s case…
On the other hand, if your loved one is enrolled in medical research study, they may unnecessarily continue treating your loved one, prolonging their suffering with the result that they may die anyway…
Intensive Care is a very complex, dynamic, volatile and also highly political environment. If you think that “what you see is what you get” you are dead wrong…
Related articles/ videos:
- Intensive Care is a Multi-Billion $$$ Dollar per year Industry and it comes with a lot of baggage!
As you would have seen by now, Intensive Care Units come with a lot of baggage. It’s never straight forward and once you have a loved one critically ill in Intensive Care, you would have found out by now that it can be very complex.
Intensive Care Units on the one hand can be a massive revenue driver for hospitals, as it tends to be the area in a hospital with the revenue going in and out!
We are talking about hundreds of Millions of $$$ Dollars(or £ if you’re in the UK) per year in big Intensive Care Units and probably tens of Millions of $$$ Dollars per year in smaller ICU’s!
On the other hand, when treatment in Intensive Care is not straight forward and your critically ill loved one’s stay is prolonged and complicated, the Intensive Care team is doing the maths in their head, they are counting the beans so to speak and they will try and change the positioning and the meaning of your critically ill loved one’s care, treatment as well as their diagnosis and prognosis if it suits them!
You’ve got to watch every move and every communication from the Intensive Care team like a hawk! If you can’t interpret the meaning behind the Intensive Care team’s communication (or lack of such) you are in serious trouble and you’ll end up like the 99% of the families in Intensive Care who make no informed decisions, who have no peace of mind, no power, no control and no influence!
Related article/video:
- Intensive Care Units are not family friendly!
We are living in the 21st century and most of you reading this are living in free, open and democratic countries and societies!
You’d think that if your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care you’d find similar openness and democratic processes!
You’d be pretty disappointed if you think that way.
The minute you come to an Intensive Care Unit you’d probably find yourself in a waiting room or in a reception area of an Intensive Care Unit and you’ll find that you can’t just walk into an Intensive Care Unit to see your loved one who may or may not be on their death bed…
The fact of the matter is that in most Intensive Care Units you can’t just walk in, you need to ask for permission.
Fair enough… and I have also seen my fair share of totally inappropriate non-family members making visits to critically ill Patients in Intensive Care!
Therefore a healthy level of scrutiny is appropriate, however what’s certainly not appropriate is to limit visiting hours to something ridiculous like 10am-12pm and 6pm to 8pm in this day and age!
I still see those limited visiting hours in some Intensive Care Units and it’s sooooooo old fashioned, controlling and outdated, period!
When I see limiting and restricted visiting hours like this I always wonder if those Intensive Care Units have anything to hide?
And it’s a question you should ask yourself too!
Related article/ video:
The next thing that worries me is that most Intensive Care teams send families of critically ill Patients away from the bedside when they are doing their “ward round” and examinations.
The “ward round” in essence is one of the most critical times during the day for a Patient and their family because care, treatment, diagnostic results, trends and outlooks will be discussed by the Intensive Care team and yet, they don’t want you to be there???
WTF???
It’s one of the most critical times of the day and there should be openness and transparency towards families when it comes to “ward rounds”, period!
What do Intensive Care teams have to say during a “ward round” that they can’t possibly openly discuss with you and your family???
Recommended:
Most of the time the Intensive Care team will send you away from the bedside, citing “privacy” reasons for sending you out and they will tell you that they will “discuss” with you later about their findings in the “ward round”.
You’ll be bitterly disappointed because it’ll take the Intensive Care team a good few hours before somebody from the “team” will actually talk to you and give you the updates that you have been desperately waiting for…
This dangerous trend that Intensive Care Units are not family friendly is really one of the most worrisome trends that there are and it goes contrary to your quest of making informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence!
How the hell are you going to make informed decisions, get peace of mind, control, power and influence if the Intensive Care team is trying to lock you out during the most part of the day and won’t let you participate in the most important part of the day at the bedside???
Keep in mind, you’ll only get what you ask for, therefore you need to stand your ground, because in life you don’t get what you deserve, you only get what you negotiate!
That’s it for the first part of
“The 7 most dangerous trends families of critically ill Patients are currently facing in Intensive Care!(PART1)”
Keep your eye out on Part 2, it’ll come out in the next few days!
How can you become the best advocate for your critically ill loved one, make informed decisions, get PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence quickly, whilst your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care?
You get to that all important feeling of making informed decisions, get PEACE OF MIND, CONTROL, POWER AND INFLUENCE when you download your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” report NOW by entering your email below!
In Your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” report you’ll learn quickly how to make informed decisions, get PEACE OF MIND, real power and real control and how you can influence decision making fast, whilst your loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care! Your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” Report gives you in-depth insight that you must know whilst your loved one is critically ill or is even dying in Intensive Care! Sign up and download your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” REPORT now by entering your email below!
In your FREE “INSTANT IMPACT” REPORT you’ll learn how to speak the “secret” Intensive Care language so that the doctors and the nurses know straight away that you are an insider and that you know and understand what’s really happening in Intensive Care!
In your FREE report you’ll also discover
- How to ask the doctors and the nurses the right questions
- Discover the many competing interests in Intensive Care and how your critically ill loved one’s treatment may depend on those competing interests
- How to eliminate fear, frustration, stress, struggle and vulnerability even if your loved one is dying
- 5 mind blowing tips& strategies helping you to get on the right path to making informed decisions, get PEACE OF MIND, control, power and influence in your situation
- You’ll get real world examples that you can easily adapt to your and your critically ill loved one’s situation
- How to stop being intimidated by the Intensive Care team and how you will be seen as equals
- You’ll get crucial ‘behind the scenes’ insight so that you know and understand what is really happening in Intensive Care
- How you need to manage doctors and nurses in Intensive Care(it’s not what you think)
Thank you for tuning into this week’s BLOG and I’ll see you again in another update next week!
Make sure you also check out our “YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED” section where I answer your questions or send me an email to [email protected] with your questions!
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Also check out our Ebook section where you get more Ebooks, Videos and Audio recordings and where you can also get 1:1 counselling with me via Skype or over the phone and via email by clicking on the email and phone counselling tabs on the top of the website!
This is Patrik Hutzel from INTENSIVECAREHOTLINE.COM and I’ll see you again next week with another update!
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