Unidades de Cuidados Intensivos (UCI) abiertas: las opiniones de los profesionales sanitarios. Un estudio cualitativo

Many studies have highlighted that “open” Intensive Care Unit (ICU) can bring multiple benefits for patients: reduced cardiovascular complications, mortality and length of stay. However, professionals are still reluctant to accept open units because of many concerns: risk of infection, interference with patient care, increased workload for team, reduced efficacy of intensive care, increased level of stress for patients and their families, violation of patient privacy. The aim of this study was to analyze the positive and negative aspects of an open ICU. After 18 months from the reorganization into open modality of the ICU located in an Hospital in Modena, we performed a qualitative research. We applied focus groups technique and semi-structured interviews to 70 nurses and 4 physicians of the open ICU, in order to appraise their evaluation of this organizational change. Our results evidenced many organizational issues, concerning the difficulty to guarantee the privacy of patients, the necessity of clear, well-defined and shared rules of work and the need of psychological support for the staff due to the higher emotional involvement with patients and their families. Nevertheless, professionals expressed the intention to maintain open ICU, in the belief that it can induce many advantages not only to patients and their families, but also to professionals themselves.