A stay in the ICU is synonymous with death in many people’s minds.As its name suggests, the Intensive Care Unit, is the hospital ward where patient care is intensive each patient has their own nurse and care is ’round the clock.This, of course, is a good thing and is in place to give patients the best possible opportunity to survive their injuries and/or medical conditions.At King Edward VII Memorial Hospital the odds are in favour of you recovering should you be admitted. Last year, 454 people were admitted into the ICU; 58 died on the ward. That’s roughly one in eight.Clinical nurse manager Veronica Colburn has instituted an awareness campaign as a means of alleviating fears the public may have. The Critical Care/ICU services campaign takes place this week at KEMH.“We want our community to better understand ICU services and not feel anxious if they should be treated here,” said a hospital spokesperson.What makes people anxious about the ICU? According to Ms Colburn, the equipment in the room tends to be the biggest reason for both patients and their families.“Often the first thing you see are the monitors and all sorts of machines with alarms going off. That can be overwhelming,” she said.Every patient in ICU has a cardiac monitor so that staff have a clear picture of what is happening with their heart. Each cardiac monitor is set to allow a certain range of heart activity specific to the patient. When the heart activity goes out of range, an alarm sounds.“There are different types of alarms to signal different types of activity and the intensity of the alarm also changes with the severity of the difference,” said Ms Colburn.And this is just one of the machines an ICU patient is hooked up to.There are also ventilators, which essentially breathe for the patient; primaflex continuous dialysis machines for those with acute renal failure; people with head injury will often need an intercranial pressure monitor or ICP. All of these machines can cause alarm and some, like the ICP, can be more than a little disconcerting.“The ventilator tends to be the more intimidating as it delivers the breath for the patient,” said Ms Colburn.But the ICP can also make ICU patients’ visitors feel uncomfortable. It is a metal probe that is inserted through a hole in the skull. It sticks out of the head and is connected to a monitor.“We prepare visitors for what they will see, before they visit with our patients,” said Ms Colburn. “It can be frightening for them to see a patient with a metal probe in their head. They tend to think the patient is in pain. We explain to them that the person is not in pain and the function of the machinery.”Explanations are even given to unconscious patients, she said.“You never know, they may be aware of what you are telling them so we explain everything to them,” she added.Nurses sit at workstations at the door of each ICU patient’s room. Glass housing makes monitoring each patient easier and fosters comfort and security for patients and their families. They realise that immediate attention is measured in seconds, not minutes, for their loved one.