Critical care nursing quarterly
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To gain an understanding of and increased knowledge about the effects of open visiting hours on patients, their family members, and nurses within the intensive care unit environment, the author reviewed 10 empirical studies. Much has been debated about the essentials needed to create a healing environment that best promotes harmony of the mind, body, and spirit for the critically ill patient. Research indicates an open visiting policy may improve the quality of care and satisfaction of patients, family members, and nurses in the intensive care unit. The studies reviewed show that although most critical care nurses find that open visiting hours may impede patient care, the benefits to patients and family outweigh any negative impact to the patient.
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Over the past decade, winners of the Society of Critical Care Medicine's critical care unit design award have demonstrated an increase in overall square footage, but this trend has been inconsistent. The following analysis compares the space allocation of 15 recently completed critical care units to document trends in overall space allocation and compare the allocation of space between small, medium, and large units. ⋯ Within the net or usable square footage allocation, all categories of space increased progressively as the overall space increased, with the exception of direct patient care space and patient care support space categories. Overall, averages are provided to be used as preliminary benchmarks for organizations evaluating their existing critical care units or planning replacement units.
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This article explores how the built environment can promote family interaction in the intensive care room and how the family can be supported within the room to care for their loved one. Four families with children in the intensive care unit were interviewed about their intensive care room environment. Patient care and the diagnosis and treatment of the child were not discussed. ⋯ All intensive care rooms were equipped with medical gas booms. All families were preparing for transfer to the inpatient area. This article summarizes the discussion with families and identifies guiding principles for designers and health care personnel to consider when creating a new intensive care room environment.
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What is the role of the built environment in healing? What aspects of the built environment promote healing, staff efficiency, and patient safety? How can we know if these assertions hold true? Can scientific research help us validate these assumptions? These questions are important to explore, especially for our most vulnerable patients-those in critical care settings. This article explores the historical influences on health care design, reveals how the current health care transformation movement has accelerated the incorporation of elements of the built environment into patient safety and quality improvement effort, discusses how healing environments are constructed, and examines how the literature of health care and health care design organizations have incorporated the impact of the built environment on patient, family, and staff outcomes and satisfaction. Finally, a case study of applying "design hypotheses" and a scientific method to the design of an intensive care unit setting is offered. This article will help critical care nurses understand the role the built environment has in creating optimal healing environments.
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Changing market demand, aging population, severity of illnesses, hospital acquired infection, clinical staff shortage, technological innovations, and environmental concerns-all are shaping the critical care practice in the United States today. However, how these will shape intensive care unit (ICU) design in the coming decade is anybody's guess. In a graduate architecture studio of a research university, students were asked to envision the ICU of the future while responding to the changing needs of the critical care practice through innovative technological means. This article reports the ICU design solutions proposed by these students.