Critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Forum
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Shortage of nurses on the ICU is not a new phenomenon, but has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The underlying reasons are relatively well-recognized, and include excessive workload, moral distress, and perception of inappropriate care, leading to burnout and increased intent to leave, setting up a vicious circle whereby fewer nurses result in increased pressure and stress on those remaining. Nursing shortages impact patient care and quality-of-work life for all ICU staff and efforts should be made by management, nurse leaders, and ICU clinicians to understand and ameliorate the factors that lead nurses to leave. Here, we highlight 10 broad areas that ICU clinicians should be aware of that may improve quality of work-life and thus potentially help with critical care nurse retention.
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Review
Renaissance of glucocorticoids in critical care in the era of COVID-19: ten urging questions.
The 40-year-old experience with glucocorticosteroids (GCs) in the context of severe infections is complex and troublesome. Recently, however, a clear indication for GCs in severe COVID-19 has been established. ⋯ In this perspective, we formulate ten major questions regarding the use of GCs in critical illness. Answering them will likely facilitate a new era of effective and personalized GCs use in modern critical care.
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Multicenter Study
Association between in-ICU red blood cells transfusion and 1-year mortality in ICU survivors.
Impact of in-ICU transfusion on long-term outcomes remains unknown. The purpose of this study was to assess in critical-care survivors the association between in-ICU red blood cells transfusion and 1-year mortality. ⋯ Our results suggest a high incidence of in-ICU RBC transfusion and that in-ICU transfusion is associated with a higher 1-year mortality among in-ICU survivors. Trial registration ( NCT01367093 ; Registered 6 June 2011).
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We aimed to optimize prediction of long-term all-cause mortality of intensive care unit (ICU) patients, using quantitative register-based comorbidity information assessed from hospital discharge diagnoses prior to intensive care treatment. ⋯ Baseline comorbidity measures that included the time interval from the most recent hospital stay in 36 different comorbidity categories substantially improved long-term mortality prediction after ICU admission compared to the Charlson index and the SAPS score. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT04109001, date of registration 2019-09-26 retrospectively.