The Lived Experience of a Critical Illness—A Social Worker's Reflection

Abstract

Critical illness, admission to an intensive care unit, and prolonged hospitalization all impact on the psychosocial functioning of an individual. This article highlights my own experience of a critical illness in an autoethnographic study thereby attempting to add knowledge to the scarcity of research from the patient's point of view. By writing this article, I was able to construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct my emotions, behavior, and the sequence of events in order to understand the impact of my critical illness. With this article I hope to invite healthcare professionals into my world of critical illness for better understanding of the patient's experience.

Including Psychosocial Factors in Screening for Surgery: A Preliminary Literature Review from a Social Work Perspective

“…In the studies reviewed, there was considerable emphasis on the link between psychosocial challenges and poor hospital and treatment outcomes, but without clear specificity. That is, challenges such as poor psychological adjustment, depression, anxiety, perceived loss of control, reduced coping ability, or cognitive impairments, were variously linked with longer hospital stays, reduced response to treatment, poorer recovery, more complications, more treatments, more invasive interventions, greater pain, and higher readmission rates (Drenth, 2013;Ensberg, Paletta, Galecki, Dacko, & Fries, 1993;Fraczyk & Godfrey, 2010;Lamarche, Taddeo, & Pepler, 1998;Oxlad, Stubberfield, Stuklis, Edwards, & Wade, 2006;Shahmansouri et al, 2014;Vallis & Leddin, 2004). …”