Intensive & critical care nursing : the official journal of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Apr 2008
National Patient Safety Agency: improving patient safety across all critical care areas.
The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) reviews patient safety incidents throughout the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom and aims to initiate preventative measures. Recent alerts include injectable medication, oral syringes for enternal administration, preventing hyponatraemia in children and anticoagulation. This article gives an insight into the rationale and steps currently being undertaken to respond to these recommendations.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Feb 2008
Multicenter StudyPain related to tracheal suctioning in awake acutely and critically ill adults: a descriptive study.
The purpose of this secondary data analysis of findings from a larger procedural pain study was to examine several factors related to pain during tracheal suctioning. In addition to tracheal suctioning, other procedures studied included turning, wound drain removal, femoral catheter removal, placement of a central venous catheter, and wound dressing change. A total of 755 patients underwent the tracheal suctioning procedure that was performed primarily in intensive care units (93%). ⋯ Surgical, younger, and non-white patients reported higher pain intensities. Although mean pain intensity during tracheal suctioning was mild, almost the half of the patients reported moderate-to-severe pain. Individualized pain management must be performed by healthcare providers in order to respond to patients' needs as they undergo painful procedures such as tracheal suctioning.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Dec 2007
ReviewPart 2. Chemical and physical restraints in the management of mechanically ventilated patients in the ICU: a patient perspective.
An important goal of the care for the mechanically ventilated patient is to minimize patient discomfort and anxiety. This is partly achieved by frequent use of chemical and physical restraints. The majority of patients in intensive care will receive some form of sedation. ⋯ However, very few papers illuminate the patient's experience of physical and chemical restraints as a treatment strategy. In Part 1 of this two-part review, the evidence on chemical and physical restraints was explored with specific focus on definitions of terms, unplanned extubation, agitation, delirium as well as the impact of nurse-patient ratios in the ICU on these issues. This paper, Part 2, examines the evidence related to chemical and physical restraints from the mechanically ventilated patient's perspective.