A comparative study examining the decision-making processes of medical and nursing staff in weaning patients from mechanical ventilation.

A prolonged period of mechanical ventilation is costly for both the patient, in terms of the risk of complications such as ventilator-acquired pneumonia, and to the health service due to the high cost of maintaining a patient in intensive care. The recognition of the role nurses can play in the weaning process and the desire to try and reduce weaning times led to the introduction of nurse-managed weaning on the intensive care unit which is the focus of this study. This means that both doctors and nurses are now responsible for making decisions about weaning.