Nurses have helped to create a first-of-its-kind guide for making intensive care units (ICUs) more environmentally friendly.
The resource will be distributed to every ICU in the UK and offers staff practical tips on how they can reduce the impact of their unit on the planet while maintaining good patient care.
“This recipe book is a huge step in the right direction”
Nicki Credland
The Intensive Care Environmental Sustainability Recipe Book has been developed by the University of Brighton in collaboration with intensive care organisations including the UK Critical Care Nursing Alliance (UKCCNA).
ICUs are a particularly resource-intensive area of the NHS, requiring vast amounts of energy to run and generating high levels of waste, with a heavy reliance on single-use equipment and pharmaceuticals.
With the health service aiming to achieve net-zero by 2040 for the emissions it directly controls, those behind the guide recognised that changes in ICUs would be key to meeting this.
Nicki Credland, chair of the UKCCNA, said: “Environmental sustainability is increasingly relevant to ICU clinical practice, education, quality improvement and research as healthcare systems face growing pressures to reduce their ecological impact.
“Embracing environmental sustainability not only benefits the planet but also contributes to a more ethical, efficient and resilient healthcare system.
Nicki Credland
“This recipe book is a huge step in the right direction.”
As well as input from intensive care staff, the guide has been informed by feedback from former ICU patients and their family members.
The recommendations are based around six themes: teamwork and collaboration; prevention; patient and family empowerment; lean service delivery; low-carbon alternatives; and education, quality improvement and research.
For example, under teamwork and collaboration, the recipe book suggests that ICUs appoint a clinical lead for environmental sustainability as well as green champions from different professional roles who collaborate with champions from other departments.
The prevention theme, meanwhile, is focused on health promotion to prevent the need for ICU or hospital care, reduce the time patients need to spend in ICU and to support patients’ recovery after discharge.
The guide also includes tips aimed at supporting a “circular economy approach” in ICU through recycling and reusing products where possible and only using plastic gloves and aprons when necessary.
Project lead Dr Heather Baid, principal lecturer at the University of Brighton’s School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences, said: “ICUs use large amounts of resources and create high volumes of waste causing environmental damage – the recipe book is a practical, ‘how-to-guide’ on maintaining quality care that is good for patients, but in a way that is also good for the planet.”
The Intensive Care Society and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine also worked with the University of Brighton and UKCCNA on the creation of the guide.
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