Journal of critical care
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Journal of critical care · Sep 2008
Hospital mortality among adults admitted to and discharged from intensive care on weekends and evenings.
Patient care may be inconsistent during off hours. We sought to determine whether adults admitted to or discharged from intensive care units (ICUs) on evenings and weekends have increased mortality rates. ⋯ Our observations of excess risk associated with admission to or discharge from ICU at night merits further exploration as to whether it may reflect inconsistencies in care after hours.
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Journal of critical care · Sep 2008
District nurses' attitudes toward patient consent: the case of mechanical ventilation on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients: results from a French national survey.
In France, a recent law emphasizes patient rights and prohibits unwanted therapies in end-of-life care. As end-of-life home care is increasing, we aimed to assess French district nurses' attitudes toward terminally ill patients' autonomy. ⋯ A significant part of French district nurses may have a disturbing propensity to support intubation and tracheotomy with insufficient attention paid to the patient's will. Further research should investigate potential causal factors (such as increased workload) as well as sex-related attitudes in nurse-patient relationship.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2008
Multicenter StudyImproving patient safety in intensive care units in Michigan.
The aim of this study was to describe the design and lessons learned from implementing a large-scale patient safety collaborative and the impact of an intervention on teamwork climate in intensive care units (ICUs) across the state of Michigan. ⋯ This study describes the first statewide effort to improve patient safety in ICUs. The use of the comprehensive unit-based safety program was associated with significant improvements in safety culture. This collaborative may serve as a model to implement feasible and methodologically rigorous methods to improve and sustain patient safety on a larger scale.
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Journal of critical care · Jun 2008
Multicenter StudyAssessing organizational performance in intensive care units: a French experience.
The objective of the study was to assess and to explain variation of organizational performance in intensive care units (ICUs). ⋯ A benchmarking approach can be used by ICU managers to assess the organizational performance of their ICU based on a validated questionnaire. Differences are mainly explained by cultural values and individual well-being factors, introducing new requirements for managing human resources in ICUs.