Minimum standards of clinical practice for physiotherapists working in critical care settings in Australia and New Zealand: A modified Delphi technique.

Objective: Achieving competency in critical care in entry-level physiotherapy courses across Australia and New Zealand is not essential, and accredited training for qualified physiotherapists working in critical care units is lacking. As a result, practice standards and training may vary. The objective was to establish consensus-based minimum clinical practice standards for physiotherapists working in critical care settings in Australia and New Zealand.

Future of specialised roles in allied health practice: who is responsible?

Allied health professions have developed specialised advanced and extended scope roles over the past decade, for the benefit of patient outcomes, allied health professionals' satisfaction and to meet labour and workforce demands. There is an essential need for formalised, widely recognised training to support these roles, and significant challenges to the delivery of such training exist. Many of these roles function in the absence of specifically defined standards of clinical practice and it is unclear where the responsibility for training provision lies.

Postoperative outcomes following preoperative inspiratory muscle training in patients undergoing cardiothoracic or upper abdominal surgery: a systematic review and meta analysis.

Objective: To evaluate whether preoperative inspiratory muscle training is effective in preventing postoperative pulmonary complications and reducing length of hospital stay in people undergoing cardiothoracic or upper abdominal surgery.

Data Sources: Medline, CINAHL, AMED, PsychINFO, Scopus, PEDro, and the Cochrane Library.

Review Methods: A systematic review and meta analysis of randomized controlled trials (or quasi-randomized controlled trials) investigating a form of preoperative inspiratory muscle training, compared with sham or no inspiratory muscle training.

Postoperative outcomes following preoperative inspiratory muscle training in patients undergoing open cardiothoracic or upper abdominal surgery: protocol for a systematic review.

Background: In patients undergoing open cardiothoracic and upper abdominal surgery, postoperative pulmonary complications remain an important cause of postoperative morbidity and mortality, impacting upon hospital length of stay and health care resources. Adequate preoperative respiratory muscle strength may help protect against the development of postoperative pulmonary complications and therefore preoperative inspiratory muscle training has been suggested to be of potential value in improving postoperative outcomes.

Methods/design: A systematic search of electronic databases will be undertaken to identify randomized trials of preoperative inspiratory muscle training in patients undergoing elective open cardiothoracic and upper abdominal surgery.

Uptake of pulmonary rehabilitation in New Zealand by people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2009.

Aims: To estimate of uptake of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) by people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in New Zealand in 2009.

Method: A postal survey sent to all District Health Boards (DHBs), Primary Health Organisations (PHOs), and other non-government organisations (NGOs) identified as providers of PR. The survey requested information on the characteristics of PR programmes, estimates of the total number of people with COPD who were offered PR, entered PR, and completed PR in 2009.

Inspiratory muscle training to facilitate weaning from mechanical ventilation: protocol for a systematic review.

Background: In intensive care, weaning is the term used for the process of withdrawal of mechanical ventilation to enable spontaneous breathing to be re-established. Inspiratory muscle weakness and deconditioning are common in patients receiving mechanical ventilation, especially that of prolonged duration. Inspiratory muscle training could limit or reverse these unhelpful sequelae and facilitate more rapid and successful weaning.

Does physiotherapy reduce the incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications following pulmonary resection via open thoracotomy? A preliminary randomised single-blind clinical trial.

Objective: This study investigates whether targeted postoperative respiratory physiotherapy decreased the incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications and length of stay for patients undergoing elective pulmonary resection via open thoracotomy.

Methods: Seventy-six patients participated in a prospective, single-blind, parallel-group, randomised trial with concealed allocation, assessor blinding and intention-to-treat analysis. Treatment group participants received daily respiratory physiotherapy interventions until discharge.

Instillation of normal saline before suctioning reduces the incidence of pneumonia in intubated and ventilated adults.

Question: Does the instillation of normal saline before suctioning reduce the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia in intubated and ventilated adults?

Design: Randomised, controlled trial with blinded outcome assessment.

Setting: The medical/surgical intensive care unit of a tertiary oncology hospital in Brazil.

Participants: Adults expected to require at least 72 hours of mechanical ventilation via an endotracheal or tracheostomy tube.

Does physiotherapy reduce the incidence of postoperative complications in patients following pulmonary resection via thoracotomy? a protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Postoperative pulmonary and shoulder complications are important causes of postoperative morbidity following thoracotomy. While physiotherapy aims to prevent or minimise these complications, currently there are no randomised controlled trials to support or refute effectiveness of physiotherapy in this setting.

Methods/design: This single blind randomised controlled trial aims to recruit 184 patients following lung resection via open thoracotomy.