Critical care nurse
-
Patient safety organizations and health care accreditation agencies recognize the significance of clinical alarm hazards. The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, a nonprofit organization focused on development and use of safe and effective medical equipment, identifies alarm management as a major issue for health care organizations. ⋯ Through a fictional unfolding case study, this article reviews selected contributing factors to clinical alarm hazards present in inpatient, high-acuity settings. Understanding these factors improves contributions by nurses to clinical alarm safety practice.
-
In the April article by Cooper, “Biventricular Pacemakers in Patients With Heart Failure” (Critical Care Nurse. 2015; 35[2]:20-28), there was an error referring to right and left atrial chambers on page 25. The last full sentence in the first column on this page should read: “When biventricular pacemakers were first implanted, it was not always evident that both right and left ventricular chambers were being paced as there was no programmed delay between right and left ventricular pacing.”
-
Staff in the surgical intensive care unit (SICU) had several concerns about mobilizing patients receiving mechanical ventilation. ⋯ SICU interdisciplinary team collaboration, multimodal education, and operational support contribute to removing staff bias against mobilizing patients receiving mechanical ventilation.
-
Critical care nurse · Aug 2015
Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue Among Critical Care Nurses.
Although critical care nurses gain satisfaction from providing compassionate care to patients and patients' families, the nurses are also at risk for fatigue. The balance between satisfaction and fatigue is considered professional quality of life. ⋯ Understanding the elements of professional quality of life can have a positive effect on work environment. The relationship between professional quality of life and the standards for a healthy work environment requires further investigation. Once this relationship is fully understood, interventions to improve this balance can be developed and tested.