American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
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A recent randomized trial of bereaved family members of patients who died in an intensive care unit identified symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress in recipients of semistructured condolence letters. ⋯ Inviting clinicians who cared for deceased patients to offer personalized, handwritten condolences to bereaved family members may cultivate sincere and individualized expressions of sympathy that bereaved families appreciate after the death of patients involved in the 3 Wishes Project.
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Major psychiatric disorders such as major depression and schizophrenia interfere with patients' life activities and ability to function. These disorders correlate with a higher prevalence of medical and psychiatric comorbidities. ⋯ Psychiatric patients' admission rate to the intensive care unit was significantly higher than their admission rate to other departments. Their intensive care unit stays were also longer, which may increase resource use.
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Conflicts in medical settings affect both team function and patient care, yet a standardized curriculum for conflict management in clinical teams does not exist. ⋯ The conflict management educational intervention improved the participants' knowledge and affected perceptions. Categorization of open-ended questions suggested that intensive care providers are interested in concrete information that will help with conflict resolution, and some participants understood that mindfulness and awareness would improve professional interactions or reduce conflict.
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Multicenter Study
Factors Associated With Home Visits in a 5-Year Study of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Survivors.
Participant retention is vital for longitudinal studies. Home visits may increase retention, but little is known about the subset of patients they benefit. ⋯ Home visits were important for retaining older and more physically impaired study participants, helping reduce selection bias caused by excluding them.