Articles: intensive-care-units.
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Knowing what parents find stressful about having a child in a pediatric intensive care unit and how they cope is essential before professionals can bolster their coping and provide support. In a semistructured interview we asked parents to discuss the aspects of the situation that they found stressful and to identify their predominant stressor. Then, using the Ways of Coping Questionnaire, we asked them to identify what coping strategies they used to cope with that predominant stressor. ⋯ Seeking social support and positive reappraisal were the two most often used strategies by all parents regardless of the classification of stressors. No significant associations were found between stress or coping and any of the demographic variables. Research such as this can be useful to practicing clinicians who plan strategies that offer assistance and emotional support to parents of children hospitalized in the pediatric intensive care unit.
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Critical care medicine · Jun 1990
Predictive equation for assessing energy expenditure in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients.
Traditional formulas, such as the Harris and Benedict equation (HBE), do not accurately predict energy expenditure (EE) in mechanically ventilated, critically ill patients (MVCIP). The purpose of this study was to develop a predictive EE equation to assess EE requirements in MVCIP. A portable metabolic cart was used to measure indirectly EE in 112 MVCIP. ⋯ The HBE underestimated measured EE by 34 +/- 19% and in 79 patients deviated greater than 15%. Using the new equation, only 15 patients' EE deviated greater than 15% from measured EE. The new predictive EE equation can accurately assess EE in MVCIP.