Journal of critical care
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2015
A pilot study of audiovisual family meetings in the intensive care unit.
We hypothesized that virtual family meetings in the intensive care unit with conference calling or Skype videoconferencing would result in increased family member satisfaction and more efficient decision making. ⋯ Although we do not report benefit from an audiovisual intervention, these results are preliminary and heavily influenced by notable limitations to the study. Given that the intervention was feasible in this pilot study, audiovisual and social media intervention strategies warrant additional investigation given their unique ability to facilitate communication among family members in the intensive care unit.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2015
Care and caring in the intensive care unit: family members' distress and perceptions about staff skills, communication, and emotional support.
Family members of intensive care unit (ICU) patients are sometimes highly distressed and report lower satisfaction with communication and emotional support from staff. Within a study of emotional responses to traumatic stress, associations between family distress and satisfaction with aspects of ICU care were investigated. ⋯ Although satisfaction was fairly high, family member distress was negatively associated with several satisfaction variables. Increased understanding of the effects of traumatic stress on family members may help staff improve communication and increase satisfaction of highly distressed family members.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2015
ReviewImpact of obesity on sepsis mortality: A systematic review.
Sepsis and severe sepsis are the most common cause of death among critically ill patients admitted in medical intensive care units. As more than one-third of the adult population of the United States is obese; we undertook a systematic review of the association between obesity and mortality among patients admitted with sepsis, severe sepsis, or septic shock. ⋯ Our review of the current clinical evidence of association of obesity with sepsis mortality revealed mixed results. Clinicians are faced with a number of challenges while managing obese patients with sepsis and should be mindful of the impact of obesity on antibiotics administration, fluid resuscitation, and ventilator management. Further studies are needed to elicit the impact of obesity on mortality in patients with sepsis.