The extent and application of patient diaries in Australian intensive care units: A national survey

Abstract

Patient diary use appears to be in its infancy in Australia with a lack of guiding policy for format and processes including evaluation. Nurses using diaries were enthusiastic about the initiative, holding optimistic perceptions about the potential positive impact of diaries on patient and family outcomes. Further research on their efficacy is required.

Extent and application of patient diaries in Austria: process of continuing adaptation

“…Nurses in Scandinavia have shown ambivalence toward legal issues in the diary concept, balancing the need for a therapeutic tool while adhering to patient protection laws. In Australia, ICU diaries have been received with similar mixed feelings as nurses try to integrate the need for guidelines and family‐centred care with issues of legal ambiguity (Nair et al ., ). In Austria, the legal question for consent has been resolved by asking the family to consent in principle if an ICU diary is written.…”

“…The next step was to conduct interviews with ICU nurses to describe the application of ICU diaries in Austria. This project is a replication of a study conducted in Demark (Egerod et al ., ), which has since been replicated in Sweden, Norway, Germany and Australia (Åkerman et al ., ; Gjengedal et al ., ; Nair et al ., ; Nydahl et al ., ). We want to demonstrate how diaries were introduced across Austria, rather than concentrating on a few regions as was performed in other countries.…”

“…In Denmark, 19 out of 48 ICUs used ICU diaries in 2006 (Egerod et al ., ), in Sweden 65 of 85 (Åkerman et al ., ) and in Norway 31 of 70 (Gjengedal et al ., ). In similar surveys, 43 of 221 questioned ICU nurses from Germany (Nydahl et al ., ) and 37 of 194 questioned ICU nurses from Australia (Nair et al ., ) stated that they were using ICU diaries.…”

The provision of nurse‐led follow‐up at Norwegian intensive care units

“…A review of nurse‐led follow‐up practices in Scandinavia has shown that diaries were written in about two‐thirds of the Swedish units and about half of the Danish ICUs (Egerod et al., ). Scandinavian nurses started writing ICU diaries in the early 1990s, and still this initiative seems to be more widespread in Scandinavia compared with other countries where diaries have been introduced more recently (Egerod, Storli, & Akerman, ; Heindl et al., ; Nair, Mitchell, & Keogh, ; Nydahl et al., ).…”

“…recently (Egerod, Storli, & Akerman, 2011;Heindl et al, 2016;Nair, Mitchell, & Keogh, 2015;Nydahl et al, 2015).…”