Hi there, I hope you are well, my name is Ria I’m a 24 y/o living in Edinburgh, and this time last year I was unexpectedly in ICU after an aortic aneurysm and quite a rollercoaster time with my health following that. Luckily I am recovering well and I am continuing back with my uni course of Occupational Therapy.
I am now doing my final year dissertation project on the Value and Meaning of an ICU Garden/ Hospital Outdoor Space from a patients’ perspective. If you would be interested in answering my 4 short questions I would be very grateful. I will ensure no names are used and answers are kept confidential throughout.
1. What is your experiences of being in an ICU garden/ outdoor space? (feelings, emotions, what it meant to you)
2.Could you tell me what you used the garden for while you were on ICU?
3.How did having access to the garden affect your time on the unit?
4.What changes would you make to the garden to improve it as a space for use by an ICU patient in the future?
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hospitalhopes
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Hi. 1.I was taken out into the garden twice after I had come round from Covid. I was immobile and still had a number of tubes coming out or going into me. I was wheeled out in a special chair. It was good to get into the fresh air and see daylight.
2. I sat in the garden for about 20 minutes on each occassion. The second time my next of kin joined me for a chat.
3.It made a nice change from the daily routine.
4. I cant suggest any changes, it was tidy and well cared for. The outlook was not the best as it overlooked the hospital perimeter road.
Please note that as the ICU was getting busy it was a lot of effort for the staff to break off to take me outside, so even more appreciated for that.
Hi hospitalhopes, I can't help with your research as it was my husband who was in ICU, but I admire what you're doing with your experience and want to wish you well with it. I know what a support nature was to me at that incredibly stressful time. Best wishes 🌻🌿🌳
Hi, I would love to help, as I now see on my return hospital visits that there is an ICU garden. Unfortunately I was in there during the second covid wave when hospital staff were rushed off their feet and had no time to take people outside.However, it looks a very soothing, well-lit, and colourful space.
I was ventilated for most of my time in ICU then I was moved to another ward so cannot comment directly. I do know however that there are gardens on the roof of Queens Medical Centre as visited a few years back and it was well used even in early autumn,
I was moved to a sister site Nottingham City Hospital a much older set of buildings and only one tiny garden area that sadly isn't tended to often. I do like gardening and green spaces and they should be available in all hospitals,
I was in hospital in winter 2020/1 but in induced coma with Covid and when on wards could barely walk and am having to adapt my own garden at home now as grass cutting is to tiring.
Good luck with your dissertation I was frontline NHS staff which is were I caught Covid and life has changed.
Sorry to read your story. I also caught Covid when in hospital with Sepsis, so two extended spells in ICU. The front line staff took big risks when little was known about Covid, and hope none caught it from me.
Sorry but wasn’t aware Wythenshawe ICU even had a garden.Was in intubated coma for 6 weeks during Nov / December so doubt would have used had there been one.Good Luck with your course.
I'm going to answer on behalf of my mother, now deceased.To provide a little context : she had undergone 2 surgical procedures, days apart - at some point she acquired a hospital / surgical infection and was kept in ICU for about 10 days, thereafter transferred to the surgical ward and placed in isolation.
She remained in isolation for 4 months, coming very close to death on 2 occasions.
The hospital was a new upmarket private facility in Cape Town, with everything you could want.
7 different menus were available for each meal. The isolation room was a suite with incredible views over the harbour towards the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront and the ocean beyond. Passenger ships would berth almost directly under her room. While she was there, the Queen Mary was in Port, followed by Europa.
Incredible views into the ships from above.
As far as hospitals are concerned, this was about as good as it gets.
However, 4 months in isolation takes its toll, depression set in and she then refused to eat. There were already about 5 specialists treating her, but I had to bring in a psychiatrist for urgent pharmacological intervention.
She survived the ordeal and during month 5 was transferred to a sub-acute facility.
The facility was out of the city on the edge of the beginning of the wine producing area - a completely different environment. Her room had views of the city to the one side, and wine farms to the other. The room had French sliding doors to a big private patio. The doors were open during the day for fresh air instead of recycled air conditioning.
1) The change in her mental wellbeing was dramatic, within 24hrs she was a different person. She began eating again and the feeding tube removed.
I should probably add, for the previous 20 yrs she had been paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.
Amongst the surgical procedures she had just undergone, was the amputation of her right leg - on her birthday.
2) She also had a stage 4 pressure ulcer at the base of her spine, and therefore was not allowed to sit up.
Instead, the nurses wheeled her bed outside onto the patio, with various medical devices attached to the bed.
When I visited her that evening, it was like visiting a new person. She was excited and happy to get outdoors and into the sun for a while, despite having to lie in bed.
This was better for her than the multitude of specialists and fancy hospital.
3) Access to outdoors, fresh air and some sun had a dramatic affect. The psychiatrist determined there was no longer any need for her services or medication.
4) in this particular instance, there is nothing to add to the physical environment. The most critical component was the dedication of the nursing staff to move her bed along with all the medical equipment outdoors and back indoors twice a day.
The medical devices included an advanced patient monitor with 7 point leads, a negative pressure wound management pump with wound irrigation, 2 IV lines as well as suprapubic catheter. It was no quick and easy task to move that lot out, and back in twice a day.
Without the sheer dedication of the nursing staff, this would have never happened.
Hi there, that is such an incredible story. I am very sorry for the loss of your mother. I am happy to hear of the amazing hospital facility and staff and that she found happiness in being outdoors. Thank you very much for sharing, it is very useful for my studies and just shows the power of nature also. All the best
Hello, I have never been a patient but I'm proud to say that the ICU I work on has a private garden where we can take our rehab patients.we also used it during covid for some families to see their loved ones through the window and this appeared to make the patients more determined to get home rather than losing hope after being with us so long.
We have quite a strict criteria, it is a private area away from hustle and bustle of hospital life and yet close enough to the unit if an emergency was to take place.
It took a lot of money to adapt the area fit for purpose and it is something we had to do privately as a unit, seperate from the ICU Trust fund.
Good luck with your dissertation. Our physios and OT's were invloved greatly and still use it for our patients.
I don't think the ICU I was in had a garden/ outdoor space, it would be interesting to know how many hospitals do have such a facility. Even so, I'm not sure I would have been in any condition to make use of it; I was chair-lifted into a large armchair towards the end of my stay in the ITU, but that's as far as it went with getting out of bed.
I went outside twice in 90 days - heavenly to feel breeze & drizzle on my face - it was a performance with crash team but I saw my granddaughter & dog for the first time in months. Very uplifting
Thank you very much for sharing and helping with my study. So lovely to hear your story and that you were able to reunite with your granddaughter and dog! Wishing you all the best ❤️
Just another thought which may be helpful I worked at Highbury Hospital (psychiatric) in Nottingham and we have a large and well used garden built a few years back it has been on the news and internet as funded by a few charities I think one called Green Spaces. Below is a link to why and how they set it up and benefits
1. It was an escape from being in a hospital ward and despite all the tubes etc that came with me...and a nurse, it was a little slice of normality in my life. My parents saw the benefits for themselves in my demeanour and were part of a team that re-planted the patent garden at their local hospital...I even donate some plants!
2. So many things happened to me that my ICU team decided I needed a change of environment and it provided a secluded area for me to talk to them about what had happened to me in my coma and what the next steps were. Before I was ambulance transferred to a different hospital with the additional specialist care I needed.
3. It provided me with a much needed space to process and collect my thoughts
4. More evergreen plants and flowers/berries that appeared with the different seasons so that there was always colour.
Thank you so much for your contribution it is greatly appreciated. Glad you found benefit of being outdoors during your ICU stay. Wishing you all the best!
There was no ICU garden but my bed looked out onto the street and some trees. I could watch the spring come as the bulbs were just coming through and some buds on the trees were coming through. I did a lot of mindfulness while awake which helped and prevented me looking inward into ICU ward.
Watching people walking along the street getting their shopping and walking back helped pass the time too, a kind of spot the pedestrian game if you like.
It snowed one or two days so watching this helped too.
Gave me a sense that whatever was happening to me the world was still turning.
Good luck with your studies and keep going it is hard work but rewarding.
Thank you so much for your contribution it is really helpful to me. I'm glad to hear you found benefit of looking out to nature. Thank you for your well wishes. Wishing you all the best too 🙂
I just wanted to say how lovely it is to see someone thank each respondent individually. I wish you all the best on the rest of your studies, you'll go far in life!
Thank you so much Glen that comment made my day. I feel very grateful everyday I get to do something I love. I hope you have a nice evening- all the best🙂
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