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In recent years, an important manifestation of shock, resuscitation, and critical illness has become more evident in the intensive care unit.
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Utmost caution has to be applied when future quality of life as presumed by nurses and doctors is used as an argument for withholding or withdrawing further treatment.
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The fact that Californias Safe Hospital Staffing Law (AB 394) isnt getting much support from the American Association of Critical Care Nurses hasnt stopped other nursing associations that support the law from encouraging nurses throughout the country to lobby for similar staffing ratio laws.
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A 3-part intervention (guideline development, computerized order templates, and education) led to an overall 17% reduction in test ordering without a change in clinical outcomes.
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Sleep was more fragmented during ventilation with PSV than A/C in a small group of critically ill patients studied with polysomnography.
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When does critical care become just another emergency department (ED) visit? When you fail to document it properly. You may do all the right things and have a patient in crisis, but if the paperwork isnt done properly, you dont get paid for your efforts.
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Two severely ill patients in the emergency department of your hospital need admission to the ICU, but only one bed is available. Who gets admitted first? Another critical care patient is severely ill, with several coexisting conditions.
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Inhaled drugs are commonly used during mechanical ventilation. The physiologic effects of bronchodilators delivered by nebulizer or pressurized metered dose inhaler (pMDI) are virtually equivalent.
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In this study of a large nationwide database, mortality during hospitalization for acute exacerbation of COPD was 2.5%, which is substantially lower than that reported in previous studies.