American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
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To systematically review clinical evidence gathered by direct observation of medication errors in adult patients in intensive care units. ⋯ Identification of patterns and characteristics of medication errors can guide preventive interventions. Factors contributing to errors, as well as drugs and error types associated with severe adverse events, deserve further investigation.
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Intensivists and nursing staff are often reluctant to admit patients with cancer to the intensive care unit even though these patients' survival rate has improved since the 1980s. ⋯ The general prognostic models seem fairly accurate in the prediction of mortality in critically ill cancer patients in the intensive care unit.
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Chronically critically ill patients typically undergo an extended recovery after discharge from the intensive care unit, making involvement of family caregivers essential. Prior studies provide limited detail about specific ways this experience affects caregivers. ⋯ Caregivers of chronically critically ill patients perceived fewer lifestyle restrictions over time but reported no change in patients' problem behaviors or distress. Lifestyle restrictions and distress remained high when patients never returned home or regained their preadmission functional status.
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Postoperative delirium in older patients results in worse outcomes and increased costs. The prevalence and predictors of postoperative delirium in patients undergoing major colorectal surgery are not clear. ⋯ Postoperative delirium is common and persistent in older patients in the first 3 days after colorectal surgery.
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To determine how the patient to nurse ratio affects risk for ventilator-associated pneumonia. ⋯ A patient to nurse ratio of 1 to 1 appears to be associated with a lower risk for ventilator-associated pneumonia, but after adjustments for confounding covariates, the difference is not significant.