An audit of adult critical care rehabilitation processes in a UK district general hospital based on NICE guidelines

Rehabilitation psychologists in critical care settings.

“…In line with a long tradition of branching out into new hospital-based settings, psychologists now also provide services in both intensive and critical care environments. 1 In the United Kingdom and other European countries, psychologists are routinely members of the critical care team (Agarwala, Ahmed, & Patil, 2011;Sukantarat, Greer, Brett, & Williamson, 2007;Tan, Brett, Stokes, & Guideline Development Group, 2009). Conversely, in the United States, this practice model is not as common, although there has been increasing interest in and growing appreciation that a sizable cohort of psychologists in the United States have been practicing quietly in these settings for many years.…”

A survey of psychology practice in critical-care settings.

“…The following search terms were used: “rehabilitation psychologist,” “psychologist,” or “neuropsychologist” with at least one of the following keywords: “intensive care,” “ICU,” “critical care,” “CCU,” or “trauma center.” Although a large number of articles were found in which the involvement of a health-service psychologist within a critical-care setting was mentioned, no articles were identified that surveyed the prevalence of psychologists practicing in critical-care settings, or that surveyed the number of ICUs or other critical care units regularly using psychological services. It was noteworthy that a number of references were identified from European and other international journals that described the involvement of psychologists in critical care as a recommended practice, for example, Italy (Peris et al, 2011), United Kingdom (Agarwala, Ahmed, & Patil, 2011), and Brazil (Andreoli, Novaes, Karam, & Knobel, 2001).…”