Research in the Critical Care Environment

Research into the psychological impact of critical care has burgeoned over the past 20 years. This chapter outlines the major areas of psychological and rehabilitation research being conducted in critical care, as well as the gaps that remain to be filled. The authors review research areas corresponding to the early acute critical care phase, the in-hospital rehabilitation phase, and the post-hospital recovery period. The focus is on patient-centered research. The authors also review how clinicians can set themselves up to conduct psychological research, what kind of teams they need to assemble, and the challenges they could face working in critical care environments. The authors draw on their own experiences conducting linked, critical care psychology research studies, and compare this to methods used by other researchers.