Dimensions of critical care nursing : DCCN
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Dimens Crit Care Nurs · Mar 2010
NNN language and evidence-based practice guidelines for acute cardiac care: retaining the essence of nursing.
Multidisciplinary management of the acute cardiac patient, for decades, has been driven by best practices, treatment algorithms, and research-based protocols. As nurses continue to develop and implement evidence-based care, they must ensure that the essence of nursing is not lost in the process. In this article, strategies for the development of evidence-based practice guidelines for acute cardiac patients using standardized nursing language are provided.
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Practitioners in critical care have made a significant progress in caring for dying patients in critical care by taking advantage of the suggestions from their professional groups. Progress has been made in responding to and controlling patients' pain. Major initiatives from the Joint Commission and the American Pain Society have helped direct this improvement. ⋯ But, better policies related to advance directives have been developed to ensure good care. Spiritual care has received more attention, and now chaplains are recognized by the Society for Critical Care Medicine as integral to the critical care team. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses has been a leader in improving end-of-life issues and continues to spearhead many projects to improve end-of-life care.
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Individuals who do not have a spleen are highly susceptible to severe infections. The purpose of this article was to present vaccination guidelines for prophylactic treatment of sepsis following splenectomy. Nursing considerations for the prevention of sepsis after splenectomy are discussed.
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Dimens Crit Care Nurs · Mar 2010
The intensive care unit: experiences of patients, families, and their nurses.
Past studies have examined how nurses can meet the needs of the critically ill patients and their families and the effects of their relatives' critical illness on the families themselves. However, there is a paucity of research studies in the literature conducted on the triad of nurses, patients, and family members looking at the experience of critical illness and their perspective of each from the other. This qualitative phenomenological study was able to elucidate the experiential descriptions, essential relationships, and meaning of structures of the intensive care unit experiences of the 15 participants during critical illness, and strategies to improve nursing practice, research, and education are presented.