'Those Were Smiling Eyes': Patients' Experiences and Perceptions of ICU Health Care During Pandemics.

The study was qualitative and small, with 27 participants, so it cannot show what most ICU patients experienced. Participants were identified through online newspapers and public social network pages, so they may have been more willing or able to speak about their experience than other patients. Recall may have been affected by sedation, pain, altered consciousness, or memory of the whole hospital stay rather than only the ICU. Women were underrepresented in the sample, although the paper notes men were more often admitted to ICU in Italy. The interviews occurred during early pandemic waves in Italy and mainly in heavily affected areas, so the care context may not apply elsewhere.

Do not read these themes as proof that eye contact, writing aids, nurses providing devices for video calls, or post-discharge pathways improve ICU outcomes. The study asked 27 patients to recall their experience; it tested no intervention and cannot separate the contribution of any single practice.