Exploring the scope of post-intensive care syndrome therapy and care: engagement of non-critical care providers and survivors in a second stakeholders meeting.

Background: Increasing numbers of survivors of critical illness are at risk for physical, cognitive, and/or mental health impairments that may persist for months or years after hospital discharge. The post-intensive care syndrome framework encompassing these multidimensional morbidities was developed at the 2010 Society of Critical Care Medicine conference on improving long-term outcomes after critical illness for survivors and their families.

Objectives: To report on engagement with non-critical care providers and survivors during the 2012 Society of Critical Care Medicine post-intensive care syndrome stakeholder conference.

Specifying and standardizing performance measures for use at a national level: implications for nursing-sensitive care performance measures.

This article explicates a comprehensive process for identifying, specifying, testing, and implementing nationally standardized performance measures. A growing body of research ties nurse staffing to patient outcomes, reinforcing the important role of nursing in the delivery of safe, efficacious health care. The Joint Commission has developed a multistep process to identify robust sets of evidence-based measures that includes a review of the evidence, expert advisory panel guidance, use of established criteria, public input and comment, and multistage field testing before implementation.