Exploring the Knowledge and Use of Standardised Nursing Terminology Across Australia.

Standardised nursing terminologies (SNTs) support the visibility of nursing work and documentation, enabling data sharing and comparison. An online survey assessed the knowledge and use of SNTs and revealed barriers and enablers to their use by Australian nurses. Just over half of the respondents were familiar with SNTs before the survey, a quarter reported a reasonable understanding of SNTs, just under half reported previous use of a SNT, and less than 14% indicated a current use of a SNT in their workplace.

The development of a clinical markers score to predict readmission to paediatric intensive care.

Objective: Readmission to ICU following discharge is associated with increased length of stay (LOS), increased rates of mortality, morbidity and resource consumption. Reducing readmission rates is one of the key aims of the Intensive Care Unit liaison nurse (ICULN). Our objective was to identify factors associated with readmission which were identifiable both from demographics and from each LN visit, and from this develop a clinical markers score.

Supporting families through discharge from PICU to the ward: the development and evaluation of a discharge information brochure for families.

Introduction: Discharge from paediatric ICU and transfer to the ward can evoke fear and anxiety. Along with the introduction of the ICU liaison nurse role, the literature suggests that the provision of written information has the greatest potential to reduce transfer anxiety. This paper will discuss the issues associated with discharge from a paediatric ICU, the process of identifying the information needs of families, the development of a written brochure and evaluation of the brochure in practice.

Introduction of a liaison nurse role in a tertiary paediatric ICU.

Introduction: The Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne is the only dedicated paediatric hospital in Victoria (population 5 million). The role of the PICU liaison nurse (LN) has been developed to bridge the gap between PICU and the wards within the hospital with the aim of reducing the number of readmissions to the PICU within 48h of discharge.

Results: The year of the PICU LN trial (July 2004-June 2005), 1388 patients were discharged from PICU.

The cardiac analgesic assessment scale (CAAS): a pain assessment tool for intubated and ventilated children after cardiac surgery.

Background: This study evaluated the reliability and validity of the Cardiac Analgesic Assessment Scale (CAAS) as a postoperative pain instrument for children after cardiac surgery.

Methods: Two prospective studies included 69 children (aged 0-16 years) admitted to the intensive care following cardiac surgery with a sternotomy incision. Four concurrent observers performed paired observations with the CAAS or a visual analogue scale (VAS) for 32 patients.