Nursing in critical care
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Nursing in critical care · Sep 2005
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialComparing the effectiveness of two types of cooling blankets for febrile patients.
A randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the effectiveness of airflow- and waterflow-cooling blankets for febrile patients in intensive care unit. More patients in the airflow than in the waterflow-cooling blanket group reached the desired temperature of <38 degrees C at the end of 8h (94.1 versus 60.0%, chi2=2.86, P=0.047). Patients in the airflow blanket group also took less time than those in the waterflow blanket group to achieve the desired temperature (3.1 and 5.7h, respectively, U=2.00, P<0.001). These findings suggest that the airflow blanket is the cooling blanket of choice for febrile patients when external cooling is needed.
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A number of interventions have been shown to improve the outcomes of patients who are invasively ventilated in intensive care units (ICUs). However, significant problems still exist in implementing research findings into clinical practice. The aim of this study was to assess whether the systematic and methodical implementation of evidence-based interventions encapsulated in a care bundle influenced length of ventilation and ICU length of stay (LOS). ⋯ Unit patient throughput increased by 30.1% and the number of invasively ventilated patients increased by 39.5%. Care bundles encourage the consistent and systematic application of evidence-based protocols used in particular treatment regimes. Since the introduction of the ventilator care bundle, length of ventilation and ICU LOS have reduced significantly.