Interview with Marta Strzelbicka, the nurse of the year 2019

Marta Strzelbicka, RN, MSc – coordinating nurse at the Clinic of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, and Acute Poi-soning of the Independent Public Clinical Hospital No. 2 PMU in Szczecin.
Leader of the project team: Implementation of clinical-receptive music therapy in patients treated in the De-partment of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, and Acute Poisoning of the Independent Public Clinical Hospital No. 2, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin.

What factors inspired you to use music therapy in the intensive care unit?

The idea was born of need. The patients who were hospitalised in our unit, after their recovery, often told us that they remembered the sounds of devices, equipment, and medical actions in the room where they were located. Inten-sive therapy is burdened with a great deal of stress resulting both from the patients’ state of health as well as from the specialist medical equipment that monitors vital functions in detail, loudly warning about any abnormalities. The work in the intensive care unit is continuous around the clock. The sounds generated by the staff, other patients in severe conditions, and the noise of functioning devices and equipment increase patients’ stress, which in turn has a negative effect on their recovery. Work in the intensive care unit and the multitude of procedures performed at the highest possi-ble level often results in the bio-psycho-social sphere of the patient being neglected. Therefore, we decided to change it, and music therapy is one of the main elements of raising the standard of our care, which implements a holistic model of care focused on the physical, mental, and social sphere.

What was the implementation process of the project?

The music therapy programme was prepared at the end of December 2018 and then implemented. Due to the unu-sual nature of the project and its innovation, it has been constantly improved since its implementation. The program covers six intensive care positions at the Clinic of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care, and Acute Poisoning. There are pa-tients of all ages with different diseases and in different states of consciousness - after surgery, cardiac arrests with mul-tiple organ failure, often in a pharmacological coma, as well as after cardiovascular and respiratory failure. Patients stay in the ward from several days to several months and are under constant care of nurses, doctors, and physiothera-pists. Although the ward may have patients in...


View full text...