EMPIRICAL STUDIES doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6712.2008.00664.x A descriptive study of basic stimulation in Danish ICUs in 2006 Ingrid Egerod PhD, RN, MSN (Associate Professor), Glennie Marie Almer MSc Psych (Research Assistant) and Rasmus Risager Thomsen BSc Psych (Research Assistant) Department 7331, The University Hospitals Centre for Nursing and Care Research, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen O, Denmark Scand J Caring Sci; 2009; 23; 697–704 A descriptive study of basic stimulation in Danish ICUs in 2006 Basic stimulation (BS) is a multimodal approach used in the intensive care unit (ICU) to help patients to perceive, move, communicate and learn. The concept was devel- oped in Germany in the 1970s to help multi-handi- capped children. It was adapted to nursing in the 1980s, and to critical care nursing in the 1990s. Little is known about the use of BS outside of Germany although it has been gaining momentum in German-speaking countries as well as Scandinavia. The aim of the present study is to describe the extent and application of BS at Danish ICUs in 2006. The study had a prospective, descriptive, qualitative, multicentre design. Data were generated from key-informant telephone interviews (n = 10). This study has shown that BS is dependent upon the personal interest of individual nurses. At most units the concept is rarely used, or used by only few practitioners, for only few patients, or only few of the elements of the tech- nique are applied. The tenets of BS are similar to those of conventional nursing, and in some cases to health care in general. The concept shows promising potential for critical care nursing. It has, however, been intro- duced unsystematically at Danish ICUs and needs more management support, systematic implementation and clinical research. Keywords: basic stimulation, intensive care, key informant, nursing, qualitative research, telephone interview. Submitted 14 May 2007, Accepted 1 October 2007 Introduction Basic stimulation (BS) is a multimodal approach used in the intensive care unit (ICU) to help patients to perceive, move, communicate and learn. The concept was developed in 1975 by the German professor in special education Andreas Fro ¨ hlich, as a means to help multi-handicapped children (1, 2). BS was adapted to nursing by the German nurse and educator Christel Bienstein in the 1980s, and into critical care nursing in the 1990s by the German nurses Nydahl and Bartoszek (3). What severely handi- capped children and critically ill patients have in common, are psycho-social competencies that are reduced to a de- gree where they are difficult to recognize. Critically ill patients may be temporarily or permanently compromised by neurological trauma, organ failure or sedation (2). Little is known about the use of BS outside of Germany. The aim of the present study is to describe the extent and applica- tion of BS at Danish ICUs in 2006. Background The term BS is a translation of the German term Basale Stimulation Ò , which has become a registered trademark. ‘Basale’ refers to building a basis to reach human beings, and ‘Stimulation’ refers to encouraging people with sig- nificant support needs to interact with other people or their environment. In some translations ‘BS’ has been re- ferred to as ‘elemental stimulation’ or ‘basal stimulation’ (2). A Standard English translation does not exist. No sig- nificant publications on BS have been found in English through searches in Medline, Cinahl, Embase and Google. Only titles of papers have been translated in order to index the publications. This means that neither abstracts nor full text versions of publications are available through the conventional channels of evidence-based practice (EBP) in non-German speaking countries. The textbook of BS has been translated into Danish (2), and seven articles appear in a non-peer reviewed Danish language journal (1, 4–9). Peter Nydahl and others trained BS experts have provided Correspondence to: Ingrid Egerod, Department 7331, The University Hospitals Centre for Nursing and Care Research, Rigshospitalet, Blegdamsvej 9, DK-2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark. E-mail: ingrid.egerod@city.dk Ó 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation Ó 2009 Nordic College of Caring Science 697