Thinking inside the box: the tele-intensive care unit as a new clinical site.

The tele-intensive care unit (ICU) offers students an opportunity to observe the decision-making process of nurses working in consultative teams in a high-acuity environment, providing a unique opportunity for novices to "see" into the thinking and the communication of expert nurses. Students are often overwhelmed by the physical environment of an ICU--specifically, its noise, technology, and pace--and often are relegated to the sidelines when a patient becomes unstable. Clinical education in the tele-ICU allows students to participate safely in the care of complex, unstable patients.

Partnership for a healthy work environment: tele-ICU/ICU collaborative.

The tele-intensive care unit (ICU) provides a remote monitoring system that adds an additional layer of support for critically ill patients. However, to optimize contributions, the bedside team must incorporate this resource into the patient's plan of care. Using the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses' Healthy Work Environment Standards as a platform, we can create and nurture a new partnership model.

Measuring tele-ICU impact: does it optimize quality outcomes for the critically ill patient?

Aims: To determine the relationship between tele-ICU (intensive care unit) implementations and improvement in quality measures and patient outcomes.

Background: Tele-ICUs were designed to leverage scarce critical-care experts and promised to improve patient quality.

Evaluation: Abstracts and peer-reviewed articles were reviewed to identify the associations between tele-ICU programmes and clinical outcomes, cost savings, and customer satisfaction.

Making the move: from bedside to camera-side.

The tele-intensive care unit (tele-ICU) uses sophisticated telemedicine technology and a remote team of critical care experts, including nurses, to provide continuous monitoring, assessment, and interventional services to a large number of patients across multiple ICUs. This new practice environment offers experienced critical care nurses an opportunity for career and knowledge expansion while reducing some of the physical and emotional risks encountered at the bedside. The role of the tele-ICU is still evolving but focuses on 4 areas of responsibility: performing virtual rounds, managing patient alerts, providing ICU support, and coaching or providing teaching moments.

A new view: tele-intensive care unit competencies.

BACKGROUND Many hospitals have well-planned nursing competency assessment programs, but these are meant to measure competency in traditional bedside roles, not in tele-intensive care unit (tele-ICU) nurses practicing remotely. OBJECTIVE To determine whether current tele-ICU programs have a formal competency assessment program and to determine when and how competency of tele-ICU nurses is assessed. Method A 20-question survey was provided to a convenience sample of the 44 known tele-ICU programs nationally.

Comparison of acupressure bands and droperidol for reducing post-operative nausea and vomiting in gynecologic surgery patients.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of acupressure bands, droperidol, and the combined modalities, administered preoperatively, in reducing PONV in inpatient gynecologic patients. One hundred and forty-three patients were randomized to one of four groups: droperidol and acupressure bands, droperidol and placebo bands, placebo drug and acupressure bands, or placebo drug and placebo bands. Overall, during their hospital stay, 69% of the women experienced PONV and 45% experienced vomiting at some time.