The Royal North Shore Hospital ICU nurse initiated telephone follow up service

The intensive care follow up telephone service has been in progress since July 2001. The aims of the service are to offer former patients an opportunity to explore the intensive care experience and provide support during the recovery phase. Patient experiences vary during recovery but include physical fatigue, sleep disturbances and financial difficulties. Patients who have been telephoned say they are grateful for the opportunity to talk about their experience, say thank you and receive general health related information about diet and exercise. The nurses who have participated in the service have enjoyed greater work satisfaction related to exposure to the patients who are recovering. It offers an opportunity to complete the episode of care. In addition we have been able to feed back patients' suggestions into existing quality frameworks. The information received from former patients has assisted in the development of a home based physical rehabilitation programme, which will be evaluated using a randomised control trial. The follow up service positively contributes to patient outcomes and the positive profile of critical care nursing in the community.