Nursing in critical care
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Nursing in critical care · Jan 2006
Intensive care nurses' beliefs and attitudes towards the effect of open visiting on patients, family and nurses.
The policy of family visits to patients admitted into intensive care units (ICUs) has been liberalised in recent years. This change has been progressive in our unit from a restricted to an open visiting policy. We have carried out this study based on Ajzen and Fishbein reasoned action theory. ⋯ The correlation between beliefs and attitudes was significant and positive (r = 0523, p < 0.0001). Comparison of sociodemographic variables with beliefs and attitudes disclosed no statistically significant differences, except for the two following variables: attitude and having children (t = -2.254, p = 0.03) which obtained a higher score. There is a correlation between nurses' beliefs and attitudes regarding the positive effects of open visiting on patients, family and nurses.
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Nursing in critical care · Nov 2005
Optimizing the fluid management of ventilated patients with suspected hypovolaemia.
Fluid management is a vital component of patient care within the critical care setting; it has a range of indications and applications, one of the most important being to maintain tissue perfusion and safeguard against single/multiple organ failure. Hypovolaemia is a commonly encountered condition within critical care and has the potential to jeopardize tissue perfusion and accelerate the risk of organ failure. In an attempt to optimize the fluid management of patients within the intensive therapy unit, this article outlines the development and implementation of a fluid prescription for ventilated patients with suspected hypovolaemia.
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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.