Critical care nurse
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Critical care nurse · Jun 2017
Comparative StudyPatients' Hand Washing and Reducing Hospital-Acquired Infection.
Hand hygiene is important to prevent hospital-acquired infections. Patients' hand hygiene is just as important as hospital workers' hand hygiene. Hospital-acquired infection rates remain a concern across health centers. ⋯ This quality improvement project demonstrates that increased hand hygiene compliance by patients can influence infection rates in an adult cardiothoracic step-down unit. The decreased infection rates and increased compliance with hand hygiene among the patients may be attributed to the implementation of patient education and the increased accessibility and use of hand sanitizer.
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Critical care nurse · Jun 2017
Decreasing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections in the Neurological Intensive Care Unit: One Unit's Success.
Catheter-associated urinary tract infections are preventable adverse outcomes that increase hospital morbidity, mortality, and costs. These infections are particularly prevalent in intensive care units. ⋯ Application of current evidence-based practices resulted in a substantial decrease in the number of catheter-associated urinary tract infections and a lower standardized infection ratio. These findings support current recommendations for "bundling" to maximize outcomes.
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Critical care nurse · Jun 2017
Interprofessional Team's Perception of Care Delivery After Implementation of a Pediatric Pain and Sedation Protocol.
Pain and agitation are common experiences of patients in pediatric cardiac intensive care units. Variability in assessments by health care providers, communication, and treatment of pain and agitation creates challenges in management of pain and sedation. ⋯ Guidelines for pain and sedation management were associated with perceived improvements in team function and patient care by members of the interprofessional team.
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Critical care nurse · Jun 2017
Nurse-Directed Blood Glucose Management in a Medical Intensive Care Unit.
Insulin-delivery algorithms for achieving glycemic control in the intensive care unit require frequent checks of blood glucose level and thus increase nursing workload. Hypoglycemia is a serious complication associated with intensive insulin therapy. ⋯ Implementation of the nurse-directed protocol for blood glucose management did not increase nursing workload but reduced hypoglycemia incidents significantly while maintaining adequate glycemic control.
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Delirium in children is an often underrecognized but serious complication of hospitalization. Delirium in this age group has been described as behaviors such as refractory agitation and restlessness, visual or auditory hallucinations, children being "not themselves," and a lethargic state. ⋯ Pediatric nurses are uniquely positioned to design care interventions to both reduce risk for delirium and treat active delirium. Many treatment recommendations are nonpharmacological and are part of excellent nursing care.