Intensive & critical care nursing : the official journal of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Oct 2010
Delirium--awareness, observation and interventions in intensive care units: a national survey of Swedish ICU head nurses.
To survey the awareness and observation of delirium, and interventions used for delirium in Swedish intensive care units (ICUs) and to examine the influence of hospital categories and staff education on the afore-mentioned. ⋯ As in other countries, this study demonstrated that the awareness of delirium in ICUs is low with a lack of implementation of validated screening tools for its diagnosis. Emphasis should be placed on education and implementation of these tools to improve the quality of care for ICU patients.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Oct 2010
Staff empowerment in intensive care: nurses' and physicians' lived experiences.
The purpose of the study was to describe empowerment from the perspective of intensive care staff. What makes intensive care staff experience inner strength and power? ⋯ Findings show that not only personal knowledge and skills, but also a supporting atmosphere and a good teamwork, has to be focused and encouraged by supervisors in order to increase staff's experiences of empowerment. Staff also need a chance to feel that they do something good for patients, next of kin and other staff members.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Oct 2010
Family members' lived experience in the intensive care unit: a phemenological study.
To describe the lived experience of family members of patients in the intensive care unit. ⋯ Using a holistic approach to nursing assessment and care delivery in intensive care necessitates that nurses interact with and care for family members of patients. Development of a philosophy of family centred care is necessary, with formal assessment of families to take place soon after admission and an appropriate plan of care drawn up at this time.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Aug 2010
Survey into bereavement of family members of patients who died in the intensive care unit.
The death of a family member in the intensive care unit (ICU) is often sudden and unexpected and may have a strong impact on family members. ⋯ Despite a high level of satisfaction with the care provided in the ICU many respondents considered a follow-up bereavement service potentially useful to deal with the death of the family member and to get remaining questions answered.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Aug 2010
Early experience with influenza A H1N109 in an Australian intensive care unit.
Influenza is a common seasonal viral infection that affects large numbers of people. In early 2009, many people were admitted to hospitals in Mexico with severe respiratory failure following an influenza-like illness, subtyped as H1N1. An increased mortality rate was observed. ⋯ Aerosol precautions were initiated for all patients. The requirement for single room accommodation placed enormous demands for bed management in ICU. Specific infection control procedures were developed to deal with this new pandemic influenza.