Perspectives of being a younger person in the Intensive Care Unit.
Over the years I written about my experiences in ICU in a very factual manner but I have never really spoken about the true impact it has had on me and even now I don’t really tell people all the details of some things.
ICUsteps has been running since 2005 and is a charity run by volunteers in their own time. The work they have done is amazing. I cannot believe that I only found out about ICUsteps a few years ago when I was asked to speak to them about patient and public involvement in research. Since then I have attended the support group meetings that run in Edinburgh and am now a committee member for the Edinburgh group.
One thing that has become really apparent to me is that the experience of a young person in ICU can be very different than that of an older person. This can be for a variety of reasons such as financial stability, employment, housing to name a few.
I was so honoured when I was invited by members of the ICUsteps board to speak at a webinar about my experience of being a young person and what we can learn to make peoples experience in the future much better….. hopefully.
After the webinar which will be available on the ICUsteps YouTube channel I felt really emotionally drained. I love being able to share my experience from being both a patient and a nurse because it can help people learn and understand what it is like to be a young adult trying to carve a career for themselves and being chronically ill.
It is so important for stories to be shared and that is why I share mine and why I write. Writing is not only for me and cathartic but helps others gain insight into what life is really like.
ANONYMOUS-ASTHMA 