Nursing in critical care
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To describe patients' experiences of a follow-up visit to an intensive care unit (ICU) after being critically ill and nursed there. ⋯ The follow-up visit, together with a personal diary, after an ICU stay could be seen as significant for strengthening the patients' feeling of coherence and better health.
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Nursing in critical care · Nov 2018
Diaries and memories following an ICU stay: a 2-month follow-up study.
Many patients lack a clear recollection from their stay in the intensive care unit (ICU). Diaries have been introduced as a tool to complete memories and reduce the risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ⋯ Diaries seem to be valuable in understanding what happened, giving a feeling of trust and for talking about their ICU-stay. As many patients described stressful memories, sessions should be offered with ICU staff.
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Nursing in critical care · Nov 2018
The effect of chronotherapy on delirium in critical care - a systematic review.
Delirium is highly prevalent within critical care and is linked to adverse clinical outcomes, increased mortality and impaired quality of life. Development of delirium is thought to be caused by multiple risk factors, including disruption of the circadian rhythm. Chronotherapeutic interventions, such as light therapy, music and use of eye shades, have been suggested as an option to improve circadian rhythm within intensive care units. ⋯ Chronotherapy can reduce the incidence of delirium within critical care, although further research is warranted. Staff education is essential in the implementation of chronotherapy.
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Nursing in critical care · Nov 2018
Meeting the needs of critical care patients after discharge home: a qualitative exploratory study of patient perspectives.
With improved survival rates in critical care, increasing focus is being placed on survivorship and how best to support patients in returning to their former activity. Little is known about what support patients themselves view as important, and this has implications for the efficacy and acceptability of services provided. ⋯ Whilst there are commonalities in the problems faced by critical care survivors, recovery is highly individualized, and current support services do not have sufficient flexibility to cater for this. This study shows that many survivors experience after-effects of critical care that outlast the support they are given. These longer-term survivors are often excluded from research studies because of fears of recall bias, resulting in poor understanding of their experiences.
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Nursing in critical care · Sep 2018
Gastric residual volume measurement in the intensive care unit: an international survey reporting nursing practice.
Gastric residual volume measurement is routinely used to evaluate the feeding tolerance and gastro-oesophageal reflux in patients receiving enteral feeding therapy in the intensive care unit. However, little supportive evidence for this intervention is available as the usefulness of gastric residual volume measurements in patients receiving enteral feeding therapy in the intensive care is controversial. ⋯ Our results show that increased awareness of these guidelines by nurses is needed to reduce inefficient use of working time and resources, streamline clinical practices and improve patient outcomes. Current gastric residual volume measurement guidelines and up-to-date, relevant training should be provided to nurses.