New graduate nurses (NGNs) in the intensive care unit have trouble learning standards of care essential to patient safety and outcomes. Two checklists were developed to help NGNs learn to consistently practice to the unit standards of care during orientation. NGNs were more consistently able to practice to the standards of care compared to a control group that had not utilized the checklists.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Increases in liver transplant patient perioperative acuity have resulted in frail immunosuppressed patients at elevated risk for nosocomial infections. Avoiding central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) is paramount to facilitate transplantation and post-transplant recovery. In 2015, our liver transplant intensive care unit (ICU) CLABSIs accounted for more than 25% of all CLABSI at our institution.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough enteral feeding in critically ill patients has been shown to be beneficial, reliable postpyloric placement of feeding tubes remains a challenge. The standard of care involves blind placement, frequently requiring multiple attempts, and radiographs. To evaluate the effect of electromagnetic-guided bedside placement in reducing time to establishment of feeding, lung placement, use of radiography, and cost, we initiated a prospective trial using electromagnetic-guided bedside placement and compared them to a retrospective cohort.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA number of studies have shown that dogs are sensitive to a human's perspective, but it remains unclear whether they use an egocentric strategy to assess what humans perceive. We investigated whether dogs know what a human can see and hear, even when the dogs themselves are unable to see the human. Dogs faced a task in which forbidden food was placed in a tunnel that they could retrieve by using their paw.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pulse oximetry is a frequently used, noninvasive monitoring tool for assessing arterial blood oxygenation. Physicians, registered nurses, and respiratory therapists are responsible for the accurate interpretation of pulse oximetry data as part of the evaluation and management of acutely and critically ill patients.
Objectives: (1) To evaluate the extent of current knowledge about pulse oximetry and (2) to increase clinicians' knowledge of research-based practices related to the appropriate use of pulse oximetry and interpretation of its results.
Background: In April 1994 at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center the Surgical Intensive Care Unit's (SICU's) Quality Improvement Council unanimously agreed on pain management as one of the major factors that negatively affect outcomes for their patient population. Using the FOCUS-PDCA (plan-do-check-act) model for quality improvement (QI), the council chartered a subcommittee to improve the pain management in their ICUs.
Methodology: The subcommittee first measured the pain assessment scores of patients at transfer from the ICU.
Crit Care Nurs Clin North Am
December 1991
Blood pressure measurement and management of the cardiac surgical patient do not appear to be simple processes. The critical care nurse needs to understand thoroughly the many technical and physiologic variables pertaining to the equipment used (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Cardiovasc Nurs
October 1990
This study examined the coping strategies of acute myocardial infarction (MI) patients one month following discharge from the hospital. Problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies were identified in 30 acute MI patients and correlated with psychologic, social, and physiologic adjustment variables. Individuals who used more problem-focused coping than emotion-focused coping were found to have better social (p less than .
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