Dagbøger Til Kritisk Syge Patienter Skrevet af pårørende: Betydning for Patient og pårørende Samt Effekt i Forhold Til Udvikling af Symptomer på Posttraumatisk Stress

Diaries written for critically ill patients has previously been shown to protect patient and relatives from new cases of post traumatic stress (Jones et al. 2010, Jones et al. 2012, Garrouste-Orgeas 2012). Furthermore it has been described how relatives and patients use diaries written by nurses to process the time they stayed in the intensive care unit (Egerod et al. 2011). This study will investigate if there is a similar effect, when relatives write the diary for the critically ill patient instead of nurses doing it as patients find it very valuable when relatives has contributed to the diary or when relatives presence has been documented in the diary (Engström et al. 2009).

The investigators hypothesis is that a diary written by relatives for critically ill patients will reduce the risk of developing symptoms of post traumatic stress in relatives and patients.

Design: randomized controlled study. Relative and patient are randomized as a pair to either intervention group (diary intervention) or control group (standard care). Relatives will be recruited to the study while the patient is critically ill in the ICU, the patient will be recruited when he or she is able to receive information about the study.

Intervention: Nurses guide the nearest relative (spouse, partner, child, parent or friend) to write a diary during the patients stay in the ICU and up to a month post discharge. The diary is a notebook which also contains a written instruction on how to write and use the diary during and after the time in the intensive care unit. At least two photographs of the patient is taken by the staff and added to the diary upon the patients consent.

Blinding: Due to the nature of the intervention neither caregivers nor participants can be blinded to the intervention. However, steps will be taken to ensure that the outcomes assessor is blinded.