Journal of critical care
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Journal of critical care · Oct 2014
Observational StudyInterruptions experienced by cardiovascular intensive care unit nurses: An observational study.
Intensive care unit (ICU) nurses get interrupted frequently. Although interruptions take cognitive resources from a primary task and may hinder performance, they may also convey critical information. Effective management of interruptions in ICUs requires the understanding of interruption characteristics, the context in which interruption happens, and interruption content. ⋯ Mitigation strategies other than blocking should also be explored. In addition, interrupters might have evaluated primary task severity before interrupting. Therefore, making task severity more transparent may help others modulate when and how they interrupt a nurse.
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Journal of critical care · Oct 2014
Performance of interleukin-27 as a sepsis diagnostic biomarker in critically ill adults.
We recently identified interleukin-27 (IL-27) as a sepsis diagnostic biomarker in children. Here we assess IL-27 as a sepsis diagnostic biomarker in critically ill adults with systemic inflammatory response syndrome and sepsis. ⋯ IL-27 performed overall poorly in this cohort as a sepsis diagnostic biomarker. Combining IL-27, PCT, and age reasonably estimated the risk of sepsis in subjects with a non-pulmonary source of sepsis. IL-27 may be a more reliable sepsis diagnostic biomarker in children than in adults.
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Journal of critical care · Oct 2014
Surveillance cultures in intensive care units: A nationwide survey on current practice providing future perspectives.
To explore the extent of surveillance culture (SC) implementation underlying motives for obtaining SC and decision making based on the results. ⋯ Surveillance culture implementation is common in Dutch ICUs to optimize individual patients' treatment. Consensus is lacking on how to deal with SC results when the focus of infection is not at the sampled site.
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Journal of critical care · Oct 2014
Non-English speaking is a predictor of survival after admission to intensive care.
The relationship between English proficiency and health care outcomes in intensive care has rarely been examined. This study aimed to determine whether being a non-English speaker would predict mortality in a critical care setting. Secondary end points were intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital length of stay. ⋯ Contrary to expectations, this large single-center study shows a consistent relationship between non-English-speaking status and increased survival after admission to ICU.
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Journal of critical care · Oct 2014
Accelerometer-based devices can be used to monitor sedation/agitation in the intensive care unit.
Monitoring sedation/agitation levels in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) are important to direct treatment and to improve outcomes. This study was designed to determine the potential use of accelerometer-based sensors/devices to objectively measure sedation/agitation in patients admitted to the ICU. ⋯ Accelerometer data correlate strongly with the sedation/agitation levels of patients in the ICUs, and appropriately designed accelerometer-based sensors/devices have the potential to be used for automating objective and continuous monitoring of sedation/agitation levels in patients in the ICU.