American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
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Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a leading birth defect in the United States, affecting about 40 000 neonates each year. Despite efforts to prevent developmental delays, many children with CHD have neurological deficits that last into adulthood, influencing employability, self-care, and quality of life. ⋯ Preoperative neonates with CHD have poorer developmental outcomes and more hypoxemia than do controls.
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Quality improvement efforts in sepsis management have increased patients' survival rates. Many sepsis survivors experience sequelae leading to unplanned hospital readmissions and subsequent mortality, especially when survivors delay seeking medical attention because they do not recognize the signs and symptoms of recurrent sepsis. Thus, increasing knowledge of sepsis among patients and caregivers before initial hospital discharge is essential. ⋯ The Sepsis Fact Sheet provides useful patient information as evaluated using established recommendations for printed materials and expert content validation. Areas for improvement include providing a summary, modifying images, and simplifying language. Results may be useful for sepsis education and discharge teaching.
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Comparative Study
Advancing In-Hospital Clinical Deterioration Prediction Models.
Early warning systems lack robust evidence that they improve patients' outcomes, possibly because of their limitation of predicting binary rather than time-to-event outcomes. ⋯ As early warning scoring systems are refined, they must use the best analytical methods that both model the underlying phenomenon and provide an understandable prediction.