Peer support in intensive care unit follow-up: A qualitative evaluation

BACKGROUND: Patients formerly admitted to an intensive care unit and their relatives seek information about life after critical illness to understand their symptoms and what to expect as survivors, and they express a desire to talk to others with similar experiences. Various operational models of post-intensive care peer support exist, and studies have reported potential beneficial mechanisms in patients involved in peer support programs. However, most models have not been formally evaluated.

AIM: To evaluate the content and setting of structured group meetings and explore participants' experiences of meeting peers.

STUDY DESIGN: A qualitative evaluation combining focused ethnographic observations and semi-structured interviews with 22 participants attending three intensive care unit café meetings in a university hospital. A thematic analysis was conducted using all data collected.

FINDINGS: Three main themes emerged; 'Accommodating the diversity of patients and relatives', 'A range of possibilities for identification' and 'A newfound community'. Findings indicate that the content, setting and timing of the café meetings were of minor concern for the participants. Patients and relatives should attend together because the consequences of surviving a critical illness affect both. Larger groups of participants appeared to increase the likelihood of encountering broad variances in participants' experiences from the critical illness trajectory. The findings indicate that before attending a meeting, the participants did not find previous experiences sufficient in managing their new life situations and they felt alone in their experiences.

CONCLUSION: Peer support invited participants into a secure community and eased their sense of being alone in their struggles. Meeting peers seemed to be more important than following a specific model of peer support.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: When setting up peer support for former intensive care patients, the most important aspect is to create a secure space for patients and their relatives to meet.