Dimensions of critical care nursing : DCCN
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Dimens Crit Care Nurs · Jan 2010
Implementation of a multidisciplinary ventilator-weaning and sedation protocol in a community intensive care unit.
Prolongation of mechanical ventilation poses serious personal and financial threats to healthcare consumers. To that end, many healthcare-related groups have established mechanisms for rapid weaning and subsequent extubation of mechanically ventilated patients. Our objectives were to create and implement an evidenced-based, multidisciplinary care-driven ventilator-weaning protocol as well as revise existing ventilator sedation protocols to decrease length of stay in addition to time spent on the ventilator. Our findings are presented in this article.