[Psychologico-medical studies in intensive care]

Depending to a certain extent on the nature and phase of the disease, or the duration of intensive care, by far the greater percentage of patients report positively on their experience in the ICU. In contrast, the members of the care-providing team expect negative evaluations on the part of their patients, adopt a very critical attitude towards their own work, and are involved in numerous interpersonal conflicts. The studies reveal numerous stresses, with both internal and external causes, for patients and staff, impairment, or even disruption, of meaningful communication within the team, as also between members of the team and patients. A study of the various individual realities, challenges and possibilities for coping on the part of the patients, nurses and doctors confronted with disease, suffering, dying and death, or recovery, points to differences in the regulation of (interpersonal) closeness and distance as an important source of conflict.