American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
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Recently, a change in anticoagulation therapy occurred that is still partially ignored by the healthcare community. Understanding the controversy over the use of the internal normalized ratio in monitoring patients receiving warfarin therapy is important for nurses who provide care to these patients. ⋯ The international normalized ratio is the most appropriate way to evaluate the effects of warfarin therapy. All healthcare providers should use this ratio as the standard in evaluating the effects of anticoagulation therapy.
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To document the impact of routine daily chest radiographs on treatment decisions in a medical ICU. ⋯ Routine daily chest radiographs may be justified in critically ill patients in a medical ICU because for a large proportion of these patients management decisions are made on the basis of information obtained from the chest radiograph. This observation may be applicable only to ICUs that have a high turnover of patients who are in the unit for a short time.