Intensive & critical care nursing : the official journal of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Feb 2006
The influence of outreach in the development of the nurse consultant role in critical care: cause or effect?
Critical care nurse consultant roles have evolved against a background of service innovation that has resulted in the development of critical care outreach services. Despite compelling evidence that there was a serious problem with the management of critically ill patients in the ward environment, there is little evidence to support outreach as a concept or as a role for nurse consultants. ⋯ Given the lack of evidence for outreach, organisations should consider the high level of involvement of the nurse consultant outside the traditional boundaries of the ICU/HDU.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Feb 2006
Nurses' and physicians' sedation practices in Danish ICUs in 2003 A national survey.
The aim of the study was to describe and compare physicians' and nurses' estimated use of sedatives and analgesics in patients requiring mechanical ventilation in Danish Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in 2003. ⋯ Sedation decisions are made collaboratively by nurses and physicians, while sedation protocols and scoring systems are still not systematically implemented in Danish ICUs. The most common drugs for sedation of the mechanically ventilated patient are propofol and fentanyl by continuous infusion. It is recommended that the ICUs collaborate on developing evidence-based standards for sedation and that clinical databases are introduced, which may be used to assess the efficacy of such standards.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Dec 2005
Comparative StudyPerformance of the Faces Anxiety Scale in patients transferred from the ICU.
Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients are often not able to respond to long self-report instruments, therefore, in order to assess anxiety accurately, a short and easy to use measure is required. The Faces Anxiety Scale (FAS) developed by McKinley et al. [McKinley S, Coote K, Stein-Parbury J. Development and testing of a faces scale for the assessment of anxiety in critically ill patients. ⋯ The study was a part of a larger study of transfer anxiety. The FAS showed good correlation with the anxiety sub-scale of the HADS which strengthened over time. The FAS was easy and quick to use and seemed to measure anxiety in ICU patients that were ready to move to the wards, however, further testing in a larger sample and with sicker ICU patients is required.
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Intensive Crit Care Nurs · Dec 2005
Critical care without walls: The role of the nurse consultant in critical care.
The nurse consultant role was first described in 1999 and has undergone little evaluation since. Critical care nurse consultant roles have developed against a background of service innovation following a review of adult critical care and have resulted in a variety of job roles and titles. There is some evidence to suggest that these posts are developing differentially and with varied role content. ⋯ The critical care nurse consultants who responded to this survey were clinically experienced and educated to an advanced level. They were leading the care of critically ill patients outside the traditional boundaries of the ICU, but have significantly less involvement within the ICU. Nurse consultants' restricted involvement with strategic organisations may limit the development of the role.