Perme ICU Physical Therapy Competency: Development of an ICU Knowledge and Skills Assessment Tool.

Background: Physical therapy for patients in the ICU is advanced practice demanding specialized knowledge and skills. However, ICU physical therapy competency standards lack uniformity or defined processes.

Objectives: To describe the development process of the Perme ICU Physical Therapy Competency and to assess its face and content validity.

Caring for Critically Ill Patients with the ABCDEF Bundle: Results of the ICU Liberation Collaborative in Over 15,000 Adults.

Objective: Decades-old, common ICU practices including deep sedation, immobilization, and limited family access are being challenged. We endeavoured to evaluate the relationship between ABCDEF bundle performance and patient-centered outcomes in critical care.

Design: Prospective, multicenter, cohort study from a national quality improvement collaborative.

Exploring the scope of post-intensive care syndrome therapy and care: engagement of non-critical care providers and survivors in a second stakeholders meeting.

Background: Increasing numbers of survivors of critical illness are at risk for physical, cognitive, and/or mental health impairments that may persist for months or years after hospital discharge. The post-intensive care syndrome framework encompassing these multidimensional morbidities was developed at the 2010 Society of Critical Care Medicine conference on improving long-term outcomes after critical illness for survivors and their families.

Objectives: To report on engagement with non-critical care providers and survivors during the 2012 Society of Critical Care Medicine post-intensive care syndrome stakeholder conference.

Early mobilization of LVAD recipients who require prolonged mechanical ventilation.

Early mobilization and aggressive physical therapy are essential in patients who receive left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) due to long-term, end-stage heart failure. Some of these patients remain ventilator dependent for quite some time after device implantation. We report our regimen of mobilization with the aid of a portable ventilator, in patients with cardiac cachexia and LVAD implantation.