Introducing palliative care into the intensive care unit: An interventional study.

Background: Many Intensive Care Unit (ICU) deaths include patient and family suffering. While there is a need to include palliative care in the ICU, such care is often unavailable.

Objectives: To determine whether a course in ICU Palliative Care was associated with changes in participants' palliative care knowledge, attitudes and practices.

The quality of intensive care unit nurse handover related to end of life: a descriptive comparative international study.

Background: Quality ICU end-of-life-care has been found to be related to good communication. Handover is one form of communication that can be problematic due to lost or omitted information. A first step in improving care is to measure and describe it.

Translation of oral care practice guidelines into clinical practice by intensive care unit nurses.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a change in the oral care practices of intensive care unit (ICU) nurses for ventilated patients after a national effort to increase evidence-based oral care practices.

Design: Descriptive comparison of ICU nurses in 2004-2005 and 2012.

Method: Two convenience national surveys of ICU nurses were collected in 2004-2005 (n = 218) and 2012 (n = 233).

ICU nurses' oral-care practices and the current best evidence.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the oral-care practices of ICU nurses, to compare those practices with current evidence-based practice, and to determine if the use of evidence-based practice was associated with personal demographic or professional characteristics.

Design: A national survey of oral-care practices of ICU nurses was conducted using a convenience sample of 218 practicing ICU nurses in 2004-05. The survey instrument included questions about demographic and professional characteristics and a checklist of oral-care practices.