American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
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To date, no intervention has definitively improved outcomes for families of critical illness survivors. An integrated perspective on caregivers' needs after critical illness could help identify high-priority intervention targets and improve outcomes. ⋯ Caregivers have instrumental, self-care, and mental health needs after critical illness. Adapting hands-on and skills training interventions to the post-ICU setting, while tailoring interventions to caregivers' health-related social context, may improve caregiver outcomes.
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Sepsis alerts commonly used for intensive care unit (ICU) patients can lead to alert fatigue because these patients generally meet 1 or more of the criteria for systemic inflammatory response syndrome. To identify ICU patients at greatest risk for sepsis-related consequences, an ICU-specific sepsis alert was implemented. ⋯ An ICU sepsis alert using modified systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria was effective for identifying sepsis in critically ill medical patients.
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Sound levels in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) are often above recommended levels, but few researchers have identified the sound sources contributing to high levels. ⋯ Clinicians should partner with families to limit nighttime PICU noise pollution. Large-scale studies using this reliable coding scheme are needed to understand the PICU sound environment.
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It remains poorly understood why only some hemodynamically unstable patients who receive aggressive treatment with vasopressor medications develop limb necrosis. ⋯ The findings of this study suggest that medication-specific factors, rather than patient and disease characteristics, should guide clinical management of necrosis in the setting of vasopressor administration.