Articles: intensive-care-units.
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In this article the author intends to make a review of the most important indications and aims of mechanical ventilation, and the repercussion of artificial ventilation over the different systems of the body. The main kinds of ventilators used for the management of the critically ill patient, connected to a ventilator are reviewed.
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Difficult dilemmas arise when resources become scarce in intensive care units (ICUs). When there are fewer beds available than patients who need them, how are those beds to be distributed? In this report, I discuss such rationing dilemmas from the context of John Rawls' theory of justice. ⋯ Such a ranking would be the most fair way of distributing scarce ICU beds within a Rawlsian conception of justice. It is a ranking that would be chosen by the patients themselves, were they able to consider the matter from a rational and impartial perspective.
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The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in demographic characteristics and nursing care requirements of patients with and patients without DNR (do not resuscitate) orders in intensive care. The sample consisted of 62 patients with and 62 without DNR orders from the intensive care units of three community hospitals. ⋯ Patients with DNR orders were white (p = 0.015), older (p = 0.03), more likely to reside in nursing homes (p = 0.04), had longer intensive care stays (p = 0.0005), were more likely to be admitted from another nursing unit (p less than 0.001), and had higher mortality rates (p less than 0.001). In intensive care settings, patients with DNR orders received more nursing care than patients who did not have DNR orders.
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Self-scheduling is a staffing method that delegates the control and the responsibility for generating a schedule to the staff nurses. This article focuses on what motivated the staff of a combined Cardiovascular Surgical Intensive Care and Stepdown Unit to implement self-scheduling and the improved job satisfaction that resulted.