Critical care nurse
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Critical care nurse · Aug 2022
ReviewAssessing Discomfort in Critically Ill Patients: A Narrative Review of the Literature.
The intensive care unit environment exposes patients to stressful conditions contributing to distressing symptoms. Discomfort is an infrequently and inconsistently described symptom experienced by intensive care unit patients. ⋯ The reviewed literature highlights the current gap in discomfort symptom assessment during the intensive care unit stay. An assessment instrument specific for intensive care unit-related discomfort, such as the Inconforts des Patients de Reanimation, would allow for prompt recognition and mitigation of intensive care unit-related patient discomfort.
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Critical care nurse · Aug 2022
Unmasking the Truth of Health Care Workers' Well-being During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Burnout is a well-documented multifactorial phenomenon that affects up to 47% of intensive care unit staff at some point in their career. The literature highlights increased rates of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder among staff as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. ⋯ COVID-19 has brought unique mental health challenges and stressors to intensive care unit staff. By adapting and expanding resources, hospitals can improve staff resiliency and mitigate some mental health concerns with the aim of decreasing the overall psychological impact of the pandemic.
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Critical care nurse · Aug 2022
Using Nurse-Driven Protocols to Eliminate Routine Gastric Residual Volume Measurements: A Retrospective Study.
Multiple critical care guidelines support the elimination of routine gastric residual volume monitoring in patients receiving enteral nutrition. However, transitioning nursing practice away from routine gastric residual volume assessments has proved challenging. ⋯ The findings of this study indicate that the elimination of routine gastric residual volume assessment does not increase the rate of adverse events and results in increased nutrition provision. Use of a protocol for practice change as well as mandatory in-service training may effect changes in nursing practice.
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Critical care nurse · Aug 2022
Minimizing Post-Intensive Care Syndrome to Improve Outcomes for Intensive Care Unit Survivors.
Post-intensive care syndrome is a collection of symptoms that more than half of patients who survive a critical illness, and their family caregivers, experience after the illness. Those symptoms include weakness/ fatigue, sleep disturbances/insomnia, cognitive dysfunction, posttraumatic stress disorder, other mental health conditions, and a lack of effective coping strategies. ⋯ This article describes patients who have a high risk of developing post-intensive care syndrome and interventions that are within nurses' purview.
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Critical care nurse · Aug 2022
Impact of Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Preadmission Huddle on Perceptions of Interprofessional Communication About Patient Safety.
Preadmission discussions in the study institution's pediatric intensive care unit are not standardized and admission plans were thought to be disjointed, leading to a perceived lack of organization and preparation for the arrival of a critically ill child. ⋯ Future studies are needed to determine if this perceived improvement in communication significantly affects health care outcomes of critically ill children or if these results are generalizable to other pediatric intensive care unit settings.