Clinical Reasoning Behind Antibiotic Use in PICUs: A Qualitative Study.

Objectives: To describe the reasoning processes used by pediatric intensivists to make antibiotic-related decisions.

Design: Grounded theory qualitative study.

Setting: Three Canadian university-affiliated tertiary medical, surgical, and cardiac PICUs.

The experience of critically ill children: A phenomenological study of discomfort and comfort.

Background: Emerging evidence indicates that critically ill children are particularly at risk for incurring significant psychological harm. Little is known about these children's actual experiences.

Aim: The aim of the study was to examine children's experience of critical illness.

Transitioning from stiff chest tubes to soft pleural catheters: prospective assessment of a practice change.

Background: Tube thoracostomies in children are required for multiple indications and can be associated with significant discomfort. In 2010, a multidisciplinary team at our institution developed a protocol to replace stiff chest tubes with 8.5-French soft pleural catheters in children requiring pleural drainage.

Struggling to do what is right for the child: pediatric life-support decisions among physicians and nurses in France and Quebec.

This study examined (a) how physicians and nurses in France and Quebec make decisions about life-sustaining therapies (LSTs) for critically ill children and (b) corresponding ethical challenges. A focus groups design was used. A total of 21 physicians and 24 nurses participated (plus 9 physicians and 13 nurses from a prior secondary analysis).

Should I stay or should I go? Parental struggles when witnessing resuscitative measures on another child in the pediatric intensive care unit.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of parents encountering the critical deterioration and resuscitative care of other children in the pediatric intensive care unit where their own child was admitted.

Design: Grounded theory qualitative methodology.

Setting: Pediatric intensive care unit of a pediatric tertiary care center in Montreal, Canada.