Dimensions of critical care nursing : DCCN
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A nurse-manager of a busy urban emergency department (ED) recounts a $10.7 million complete renovation and expansion that added close to 20,000 square feet to the unit. Advice includes how to plan for security and equipment needs, create a design that exceeds expectations, get the ED through the ambitious construction phase--and anticipate the personal needs that accompany added responsibility.
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Dimens Crit Care Nurs · Jul 2000
The effect of critical care hospitalization on family members: stress and responses.
Family members of intensive care patients may experience stressors that threaten both personal health and family integrity. This study found that family members endure multiple concurrent stressors and exhibit numerous behavioral responses, including changes in eating, sleeping, activity, and family roles and responsibilities. Nurses can promote family integrity with interventions that address these behavioral changes and promote normal behavior patterns.
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Dimens Crit Care Nurs · Mar 2000
ReviewContinuous intravenous prostacyclin for advanced primary pulmonary hypertension.
This article discusses the use of prostacyclin therapy for patients with advanced primary pulmonary hypertension, from patient selection through initiation, dosing, outpatient management, and outcomes. Advanced practice nurses are key to helping patients adapt to this complex medical therapy.
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Dimens Crit Care Nurs · Mar 2000
Eyeing the ED's open door: how case managers can reduce unnecessary admissions.
More than one-third of all hospital admissions originate from the emergency department (ED). ED case managers maximize the quality of care and control ED admissions by verifying admission criteria, finding alternatives to inappropriate or social admissions, and identifying high-risk discharge factors.
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Dimens Crit Care Nurs · Mar 2000
Ensuring competency in nurse repositioning of the pulmonary artery catheter.
Although nurses often reposition pulmonary artery catheters, facilities may not formally recognize the practice. This article describes how one medical center developed a procedure and competency assessment to guide and monitor nurse repositioning of pulmonary artery catheters.