ArticleIntensive & critical care nursing2023
Thematic analysis of intensive care unit diaries kept by staff: insights for caring.
Article in Intensive & critical care nursing, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed.
- Key Insights From the International ICU Diary Conference 2025.Nursing in critical care · 2026Article
- Family members' experiences with intensive care unit diaries.BMC anesthesiology · 2025Article
- Being an observer of one's own life-a meta-synthesis on the experience of mechanically ventilated patients in intensive care units.Critical care (London, England) · 2025Review
- Article
- Were the unfinished nursing care occurrence, reasons, and consequences different between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients? A systematic review.BMC nursing · 2023Article
- The Impact of an Intensive Care Diary on the Psychological Well-Being of Patients and Their Family Members: Longitudinal Study Protocol.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo explore recurrent themes in diaries kept by intensive care unit (ICU) staff during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
designQualitative study.
settingTwo ICUs in a tertiary level hospital (Milan, Italy) from January to December 2021.
methodsICU staff members wrote a digital diary while caring for adult patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit for >48 hours. A thematic analysis was performed.
findingsDiary entries described what happened and expressed emotions. Thematic analysis of 518 entries gleaned from 48 diaries identified four themes (plus ten subthemes): Presenting (Places and people; Diary project), Intensive Care Unit Stay (Clinical events; What the patient does; Patient support), Outside the Hospital (Family and topical events; The weather), Feelings and Thoughts (Encouragement and wishes; Farewell; Considerations).
conclusionThe themes were similar to published findings. They offer insight into care in an intensive care unit during a pandemic, with scarce resources and no family visitors permitted, reflecting on the patient as a person and on daily care. The staff wrote farewell entries to dying patients even though no one would read them. IMPLICATIONS FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE: The implementation of digital diaries kept by intensive care unit staff is feasible even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Diaries kept by staff can provide a tool to humanize critical care. Staff can improve their work by reflecting on diary records.
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