Hola a tod@s, my dear friends.

Today is a very special day.

We want to share a document drawn up by several health care professionals, patients and families to declare our commitment in the humanization of Intensive Care Units.

The document can be downloaded in the following link, and as you can see, we encourage you to sign online and to spread the Declaration to all your contacts.

For this, we have the help of the 2.0 national and international community, and you can use the hashtag #humaniza.

The first public reading of the Declaration will be made during the National Conference on Humanization, May 27th and 28th, in Torrejón (Madrid).

Declaration of Torrejón 
for the Humanization 

of Intensive Care



“We, the undersigned, believe that a change is needed in order to improve the communication and collaboration between Intensive Care health personnel and the critically ill. In addition to the advances in Medicine and Technology that are available in Critical Care, we must not forget the interpersonal aspects of comfort care and reassurance that must be provided to patients and their families during situations of extreme duress. Creating an environment of dialogue, of shared feelings and common values can raise the level of trust, reduce emotional stress, and improve the collaboration between the ICU personnel and the patients/families. By focusing on a more holistic conceptual model to Humanize Intensive Care we can improve the
process for the dying and for their families.

For this reason, we present the following Obligations and Rights for ICU professionals, patients, and their families:

 1. ICU personnel must provide excellent clinical care, effective technological support, and honest, open communication with the patients and their families.

2. ICU patients have the right to comprehensive treatment, both medically as well as psychologically in an atmosphere of honest communication and a caring bedside manner.

3. ICUs should provide work environments that reduce stress, ensure safety, foster teamwork, thus working together to improve the care of patients and their families while reducing professional burn-out.

To achieve these goals, Intensive Care Professionals, patients and families, and other health professionals are committed to work together in the following lines of action:

  • Facilitate communication among patients, family members, and the care team.
  • Facilitate and provide the most appropriate information for the patients and their families.
  • Make visiting hours more flexible for family members.
  • Encourage the participation of family members in the care of the patient and in the decision-making process.
  • Measure patient/family member satisfaction and act on the results.
  • Humanize end-of-life care for the dying and for their families.
  • Promote structural and architectural improvements in the design of the ICU.
  • Prevent the deterioration of the workplace environment, thus combating professional dissatisfaction, discouragement, and perceived stress factors.
  • Provide adequate emotional support for ICU staff in crisis situations.
  • Resolve potential bioethical conflicts.
  • Offer specific training for ICU personnel: coping with death, dealing with stressful situations, managing families through the dying process, etc.
  • Continue researching to increase the empirical evidence available.
 

By carrying out these quality improvement measures cited above, we hope to provide a more patient-centered holistic integral Intensive Care, sustainable and of higher quality, with more satisfied patients and families and more motivated professionals. It will be a place where human beings and technological development go hand in hand to meet the diverse needs of everyone involved.

All institutional levels must work together constructively to promote research and training, accompanied by economy strategies and policies in order to implement the aforementioned lines of action.

We, the undersigned, (ICU personnel, patients, family members) are committed to working together to achieve change, disseminate the content of this statement, and provide a more humanized intensive care. You can join the Declaration of Torrejón by signing here“.


Thank you so much.
Today more than ever…All together we add more!