Nursing research
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Backrest angle and cardiac output measurement in critically ill patients.
Cardiac output is an extremely important measurement in the care of critically ill patients, but the accuracy of measurement is unknown when patients are in positions other than flat and supine. ⋯ No differences in the continuous cardiac index values across the nine different measurement conditions were found. An examination of the determinants of cardiac output (stroke volume and heart rate) indicated that the lack of change in continuous cardiac index was not a result of a compensatory change in either stroke volume or heart rate. These data indicate that in daily clinical practice with critical medical surgical patients it may be unnecessary to reposition patients solely for the purpose of obtaining continuous cardiac index measurements. The measurements appear to be reproducible at head-of-bed angle up to 45 degrees.
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Despite the widespread availability of hospice services for more than two decades in the United States, currently many terminally ill cancer patients who may benefit from hospice care do not receive it. ⋯ The results of this study identified several groups of terminally ill cancer patients who were at a disadvantage to use hospice home care, including those without sufficient family resources but who required intensive nursing care. Providing nursing care that enables family care-taking at home may facilitate hospice home care use for patients.