Intensive care during the COVID-19 pandemic

The overall aim of this project is to provide knowledge about the experiences of intensive care for patients with COVID-19 and how these experiences affect people's daily lives from the perspective of people who have been severely ill, their relatives and healthcare professionals.

When COVID-19 reached northern Sweden, a surgical ward was rebuilt at one of the county's hospitals to provide intensive care for the county's patients with COVID-19. This intensive care unit (ICU) was staffed by healthcare professionals from the county. Staff from all of the county's hospitals and other agencies were recruited to this department, which meant that many of them had to work in a new situation, with an unknown virus, in a new workplace in protective equipment. In addition, high demands were placed on the care team, which consisted mainly of new colleagues, many of whom had to be introduced to the work. As a rule, patients treated in COVID-19 ICUs have been on ventilators for a long time, deeply sedated and muscle relaxed, which affects recovery after intensive care. Family members are of great importance to the patient, and at the same time have their own needs for support and explanation. During the pandemic, family members have generally not been able to visit the patient due to the current restraining order. They stayed at home, isolated, and waited for news of the patient's condition.

The overall aim of this project is to provide knowledge about experiences of intensive care for patients with COVID-19 and how these experiences affect people's daily lives from the perspective of people who have been seriously ill, their relatives and healthcare professionals. In addition, a collaborative project is underway with Karlstad University and Region Värmland with a focus on learning, person-centeredness and moral stress in intensive care nursing students who have done VFU during the pandemic, in intensive care nurses who have supervised students and who have introduced new employees during the pandemic, as well as the experiences of their managers / supervisors.