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Hi, it’s Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com with another quick tip for families in intensive care.

So, when people come to our website and they opt in for our free instant impact report or for our free video mini course, we ask them “What is their biggest frustration currently?” And one of our readers, John, has written for his biggest frustration that “The head doctor reviewed tests and made plans, but the new doctor rotated in with a completely different plan and had never reviewed the tests, but is still forging ahead with aggressive decisions, contrary to the head doctor who rotated out, what should we do?” Well, that’s a great question from John here, and it’s a question we get quite frequently because one of the biggest frustrations as well for families in intensive care is that every week or even sometimes every couple of days, there’s a new ICU doctor rotating in because they’re working days, they’re working nights. They’re often working in different hospitals, in different jobs, and that can be a challenge in ICU that families are dealing with a different doctor with different views all the time.

Now, what should you do in a situation like that? I tell you what you should do in a situation like that. Number one, you should expect it. You should expect that whatever the current status quo is, that it might be changed with a new doctor coming in. ICUs are highly political. So, what do I mean by that? ICU doctors in general have big egos, and that’s my experience after having worked in intensive care for over 20 years in three different countries, and where I also worked as a nurse unit manager for over 5 years in ICU. So, I can tell you from experience that ICU doctors have big, big egos and it’s a very hierarchical and political environment.

So, maybe there’s some rivalry going on between those two doctors. Maybe they’re at the opposite end of medical point of views. Maybe they’re at the opposite end of their own values, I don’t know. Maybe they’re fighting both for a promotion, I don’t know. But you got to expect that ICUs are highly political environments and that patient care sometimes, if not often, is compromised because of that. I have seen in over 20 years of ICU, one ICU doctor wants this for a patient and wants that for a patient, and then the next day a new ICU doctors coming in and changing everything. That’s not a new thing at all.

So, how should you manage that? As I said, you should expect that. You should keep coming back to asking the same questions over and over again, and that you might think, “Well, why should I ask the same questions over and over again?” So, picture this, when your last one is in ICU, there’s a handover every day from shift to shift. Often two handovers, sometimes even three handovers, depending on whether an ICU is working in 12-hour shifts or in three 8-hour shifts. There’s a handover every single time from shift to shift. And they basically give a handover from head to toe of the patient, neurological condition, hemodynamic condition, respiratory condition, kidneys, gut, liver, and whatnot. And they go through the same systems over and over again. And you should use the system too.

So, what do I mean by that? I’ve written an article a couple of years ago and made a video about it, “What questions you should be asking”, and you should be referring back to those questions over and over again, because that’s what the ICU is doing. They’re referring back to the systems they’re talking about every single day for each handover. And you should be doing the same. You should just ask the same questions over and over again. That’ll give you an idea are they changing tact? What are they changing? Is there a rationale behind it?

ICUs are not the best. ICU doctors are not the best people to explain to you what’s really happening. I believe that the nurses are much better at explaining things to you because I believe we have more compassion, we have more empathy, and we also take the time to talk to people. The doctors are often rushed, and sometimes it’s not necessarily their own fault. They are very busy. But what you need to be mindful of is they’re often telling you only half of the story unless you ask the right questions.

So, it really comes down to you taking responsibility of asking the right questions, informing yourself about your rights. You’ve heard me say before, the biggest challenge for families in intensive care is that they don’t know what they don’t know. They don’t know what to look for. They don’t know what questions to ask. They don’t know their rights, and they don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care. This is exactly what we’re talking about today, that you don’t know how to manage doctors and nurses in intensive care. Stick to your script. Stick to what you want for your loved one. Stick to the same questions over and over again. Get yourself informed about your rights. We can help you with that, and then you’ll be on the right course.

So, that is my quick tip for today.

If you have a loved one in intensive care, go to intensivecarehotline.com. Call us on one of the numbers on the top of our website, or simply send us an email to support@ intensivecarehotline.com.

Also, have a look at our membership for families in intensive care at intensivecaresupport.org. There, you have access to me and my team where we answer questions about any questions about intensive care, 24 hours a day, via email and in a membership forum.

Also, if you need a medical record review, contact us as well. We can review medical records while your loved one is in ICU, or we can review them after ICU, especially if you suspect medical negligence. But we can review medical records in real time, especially in this day and age. It’s just really a link to a website, with a username and a password that the hospital should issue to you. And then, we can help you reviewing medical records in real time and interpret data in real time.

Also, like this video, subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular updates for families in intensive care and Intensive Care at Home, click the notification bell, share the video with your friends and families, and comment below what you want to see next, or what questions and insights you have from this video.

Thanks for watching.

This is Patrik Hutzel from intensivecarehotline.com and I’ll talk to you in a few days.