Table 1 Grid of analysis of the content of the intensive care unit (ICU) diary
Category 1: Defining places, spaces, and people | |
 Theme 1 | Narrative about the ICU and its location in the hospital and city |
 Theme 2 | Narrative about the identity and job responsibilities of each ICU staff member |
 Theme 3 | Narrative about the characteristics of the room |
 Theme 4 | Narrative describing the pictures posted in the room |
 Theme 5 | Narrative about the characteristics and purpose of the machines |
 Theme 6 | Narrative about the sights and sounds in the room |
 Theme 7 | Narrative about the presence of, or visits by, members of the clergy |
Category 2: Building a time flow of medical events | |
 Theme 1 | Narrative about the patient’s history before ICU admission and after the first urgent interventions |
 Theme 2 | Narrative about the condition of the patient, clinical course, treatments, procedures, investigations, and surgeries |
 Theme 3 | Description of events that interfered or might have interfered with the presence of ICU staff members at the bedside |
 Theme 4 | Comments on life expectancy and the expected impact of the disorders on quality of life |
 Theme 5 | Narrative describing exchanges among healthcare professionals involved with the patient: date of onset and content |
 Theme 6 | Narrative about the differences in tasks carried out by the day staff and night staff, to explain how the 24-h cycle unfolds |
Category 3: To replace the time flow of the patient’s experience within the time flow of family, community, and world events | |
 Theme 1 | Narrative about events in the patient’s personal life (narrator, family, friends …) |
 Theme 2 | Narrative about the difference in the perceived time flow of events between the patient since ICU admission and the narrator or family/friends |
 Theme 3 | Narrative about future projects for the patient |
 Theme 4 | Narrative about concomitant social, political, economic, and cultural events |
 Theme 5 | Narrative about the visits, their sequence in time, their duration, and factors that prevented some visits from occurring |
Category 4: To demonstrate the continuity of the patient’s life | |
 Theme 1 | Narrative about the patient’s recent or remote past, habits, reactions, and personality features |
 Theme 2 | Narrative about the patient’s behaviors, attitudes, and actions |
 Theme 3 | Narrative about physical changes and attitudes (e.g., ability to open/close the eyes) |
 Theme 4 | Narrative about changes in expressions of pain and responses to nursing care |
 Theme 5 | Narrative about the patient’s emotional responses to the voices of the staff and family/friends (smiling, small movements of the eyelids or body) |
 Theme 6 | Narrative about the patient’s emotional responses to physical contact (stroking, holding hands, touching …) |
Category 5: To express feelings and emotions | |
 Theme 1 | Narrative that explicitly describes feelings or emotions about the patient |
 Theme 2 | Narrative that explicitly describes feelings or emotions about or toward the ICU staff |
 Theme 3 | Narrative that explicitly describes feelings or emotions of family members or other loved ones |
 Theme 4 | Narrative describing expectations, fears, discouragement, and hopes of the family and other loved ones |
 Theme 5 | Narrative describing the fears and hopes of the staff |
Category 6: To explicitly demonstrate the presence, commitment, and support of staff and family | |
 Theme 1 | To write an account of one’s presence at the patient’s bedside |
 Theme 2 | To make one’s presence felt in a personal and original way (poems, songs, music, drawings …) |
 Theme 3 | To describe relationships between the patient and other persons while encouraging the other persons to speak to, and to touch, the patient, despite the unfavorable environment |
 Theme 4 | To describe one’s physical involvement in communicating with the patient |
 Theme 5 | To describe or refer to one’s support in the form of prayers or any other religious or spiritual activity |