Daily Intensive Care Research Articles

Factors that may threaten or protect the wellbeing of staff working in paediatric intensive care environments

ObjectiveThis study explored the risk and protective factors for wellbeing from the perspectives of multidisciplinary paediatric intensive care unit staff. DesignUsing a qualitative, descriptive study design we purposively recruited a sample of nurses, physicians, and allied health professionals to participate in semi-structured interviews which explored staff perceptions of risk and protective factors relating to their daily paediatric intensive care roles. Data was analysed using thematic analysis. SettingFour paediatric intensive care units in Australia. FindingsTwenty staff were recruited. Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis approach identified perceived risks for wellbeing included a lack of preparation for the role, and clinical situations that contributed to psychological distress, including perceived worst shift, moral distress, non-accidental injuries, and isolation. Themes perceived as protective to wellbeing included: finding the work stimulating and meaningful, belonging to the team, and using humour. ConclusionStaff perceptions of wellbeing in the paediatric intensive care unit suggested that risk factors often co-existed simultaneously with protective factors. These results are not consistent with the notion that wellbeing as a phenomenon can be considered on a risk-protection continuum. Strategies that enhance this work as meaningful and stimulating, promote a sense of belonging to the team, and support the use of humour, may assist health professionals to achieve a balance between risk and protective factors for wellbeing. Implications for clinical practiceEducation and training on end-of-life care, and how to have difficult conversations and manage the consistent psychological distress of intensive care work, is essential at orientation and requires regular formal interventions.Experiencing the work as stimulating highlights the need for advanced scope of practice work. Opportunities for individual and team reflection about the meaning and purpose of their work, and ensuring staff feel valued and experience a sense of belonging to the team, are critical to the intensive care context.

Neuromuscular Ultrasound in Intensive Care Unit-Acquired Weakness: Current State and Future Directions.

Intensive care unit-acquired weakness (ICUAW) is one of the most common causes of muscle atrophy and functional disability in critically ill intensive care patients. Clinical examination, manual muscle strength testing and monitoring are frequently hampered by sedation, delirium and cognitive impairment. Many different attempts have been made to evaluate alternative compliance-independent methods, such as muscle biopsies, nerve conduction studies, electromyography and serum biomarkers. However, they are invasive, time-consuming and often require special expertise to perform, making them vastly impractical for daily intensive care medicine. Ultrasound is a broadly accepted, non-invasive, bedside-accessible diagnostic tool and well established in various clinical applications. Hereby, neuromuscular ultrasound (NMUS), in particular, has been proven to be of significant diagnostic value in many different neuromuscular diseases. In ICUAW, NMUS has been shown to detect and monitor alterations of muscles and nerves, and might help to predict patient outcome. This narrative review is focused on the recent scientific literature investigating NMUS in ICUAW and highlights the current state and future opportunities of this promising diagnostic tool.

A system theory based digital model for predicting the cumulative fluid balance course in intensive care patients.

Background: Surgical interventions can cause severe fluid imbalances in patients undergoing cardiac surgery, affecting length of hospital stay and survival. Therefore, appropriate management of daily fluid goals is a key element of postoperative intensive care in these patients. Because fluid balance is influenced by a complex interplay of patient-, surgery- and intensive care unit (ICU)-specific factors, fluid prediction is difficult and often inaccurate. Methods: A novel system theory based digital model for cumulative fluid balance (CFB) prediction is presented using recorded patient fluid data as the sole parameter source by applying the concept of a transfer function. Using a retrospective dataset of n = 618 cardiac intensive care patients, patient-individual models were created and evaluated. RMSE analyses and error calculations were performed for reasonable combinations of model estimation periods and clinically relevant prediction horizons for CFB. Results: Our models have shown that a clinically relevant time horizon for CFB prediction with the combination of 48h estimation time and 8-16h prediction time achieves high accuracy. With an 8-h prediction time, nearly 50% of CFB predictions are within ±0.5 L, and 77% are still within the clinically acceptable range of ±1.0L. Conclusion: Our study has provided a promising proof of principle and may form the basis for further efforts in the development of computational models for fluid prediction that do not require large datasets for training and validation, as is the case with machine learning or AI-based models. The adaptive transfer function approach allows estimation of CFB course on a dynamically changing patient fluid balance system by simulating the response to the current fluid management regime, providing a useful digital tool for clinicians in daily intensive care.

Clinical study on the predictive value of regional cerebral oxygen saturation for the occurrence of sepsis-associated encephalopathy

To evaluate the predictive value of regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rScO2) for the occurrence of sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE). The data of 94 patients with sepsis admitted to the intensive care unit of Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital from September 2019 to June 2021 were collected. The patients were divided into SAE group and non-SAE group according to the evaluation results of daily intensive care unit confusion assessment method (CAM-ICU) during ICU treatment. The general data such as age and gender of the patients, rScO2 on 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 days of ICU admission, and prognostics were recorded. Receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC curve) was drawn to evaluate the predictive value of rScO2 on SAE during ICU stay. All 94 patients were enrolled in the analysis, of whom 59.6% (56/94) were male, and the mean age was (50.1±15.1) years old; the incidence of SAE was 31.9% (30/94). The levels of rScO2 within first 3 days of ICU admission in the SAE group were significantly lower than those in the non-SAE group (1 day: 0.601±0.107 vs. 0.675±0.069, 2 days: 0.592±0.090 vs. 0.642±0.129, 3 days: 0.662±0.109 vs. 0.683±0.091, all P < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference in rScO2 level on the 5th or the 7th day between the SAE and non-SAE groups (5 days: 0.636±0.065 vs. 0.662±0.080, 7 days: 0.662±0.088 vs. 0.690±0.077, both P > 0.05). ROC curve analysis showed that 1-day rScO2 had the greatest predictive value for SAE [1 day: area under the ROC curve (AUC) = 0.77, 95% confidence interval (95%CI) was 0.65-0.89, P < 0.01; 2 days: AUC = 0.60, 95%CI was 0.48-0.72, P > 0.05; 3 days: AUC = 0.55, 95%CI was 0.41-0.68, P > 0.05]; with 1-day rScO2 = 0.640 as the diagnostic threshold, the sensitivity was 73.4%, the specificity was 80.0%. Compared with the non-SAE group, the length of ICU stay and hospital stay in the SAE group were significantly longer [length of ICU stay (days): 13.6±7.1 vs. 9.0±4.3, length of hospital stay (days): 20.1±8.0 vs. 15.8±6.1, both P < 0.05], but the ICU mortality between the two groups was not statistically different. The incidence of SAE is relatively high in ICU patients, and the occurrence of SAE can be predicted by monitoring rScO2. The rScO2 value on the first day of ICU admission is closely related to the occurrence of SAE, and may be the target of sepsis resuscitation to guide the treatment and improve the long-term prognosis.

Religious and spiritual support in the conception of nurses and families of critical patients: a cross-sectional study.

To assess the religious and spiritual support in critical care according to the conception of patients' family members and nurses. This is a quantitative cross-sectional study conducted with nurses and relatives of patients admitted to intensive care units. Sociodemographic data were collected and a questionnaire on religiosity and spirituality was applied to family members and the Spirituality and Spiritual Care Rating Scale to nurses. The results with p ≤ 0.05 were significant. Sample consisted of intensive care nurses (n = 22) and family members (n = 61). Intensive care nurses stated that they can provide spiritual care (p = 0.03). Of the family members, 88.5% believed that religiosity and spirituality help in coping with difficult times, highlighting prayer as part of care for critically ill patients (p = 0.02). Nurses and family members recognized religious/spiritual support as significant to the process of caring for critically ill patients, even though professional qualification is required for greater integration of this support in daily intensive care.

Preparedness of Countries To Constrain COVID-19 Pandemic Crisis and Support Timely Vaccinations: Analysis of the Performance and Underlying Structural Factors

One of the problems in pandemic crisis of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the evaluation of the preparedness of crisis management in countries to cope with COVID-19 pandemic and to face new infectious diseases. In this settings, the main goal of this study is to propose the Index r (as resilience) that detects which countries have had the best performance to reduce the negative impact of mortality related to COVID-19 pandemic and the Index p (as prevention) that assesses best-performer countries to support COVID-19 vaccinations in order to prevent the diffusion of future waves of COVID-19, reducing socioeconomic issues and risk of exposure to future epidemics of the COVID-19 and similar infections. On the one side, Index of resilience produces a score based on average mortality, average daily hospital occupancy and Intensive Care Units (ICUs) occupancy per 100 000 people; on the other side, Index of prevention produces a synthetic score by focusing on indicators of COVID-19 vaccinations, such as doses of vaccines administrated and total vaccinates per 100 000 people. The application of these indexes on a case study of European countries, having a similar socioeconomic structure, reveal that best-performer countries to cope with COVID-19 pandemic crisis have a smaller size of population and better governance, not limited to healthcare system. These indexes can support a strategies of crisis management to constrain current and future pandemic threat of the COVID-19 and similar infectious diseases.

In Response.

In Response.

Nutrition in Critically Ill Patients - Challenges in Special Patient Groups

Medical nutrition therapy in daily intensive care often is challenging for the clinician. The severity of disease with possible compromises of conscience, hemodynamics, respiration, renal and gastrointestinal systems requires an individual adaptation of the nutrient-supply adjusted to the disease phase and secondary metabolic tolerance. For these adjustments, clinicians should consider the nature of the acute disease leading to critical illness and also the preceding nutrition state, comorbidities and demographics, as well as the prognosis of the patient. Close monitoring is necessary for a rapid response in case the medical condition changes or new medical or nutritional problems arise.This pragmatic educational article describes recommended nutrition therapies for different patient cohorts in intensive care medicine based on currently valid (inter)national guidelines.

The Pediatric Home Health Care Process: Perspectives of Prescribers, Providers, and Recipients.

Children with medical complexity (CMC) often require pediatric home health care (PHHC) to meet their daily intensive care needs. Pediatricians are central to planning, implementing, and maintaining quality PHHC for CMC, yet a comprehensive road map for this process is lacking. With this national study, we aim to fill that gap. Semistructured interviews were conducted with parents and professionals from the 10 US Health Resources and Services Administration regions. Parents were recruited via advocacy groups for families of CMC; professionals with experience with PHHC for CMC were identified by using purposive and snowball sampling. Interview transcripts were qualitatively analyzed for themes. A comprehensive process of prescribing, providing, and maintaining PHHC requires 5 steps: identifying needs, investigating options, developing plans of care, initiating services, and navigating evolving needs. The success of the PHHC process is built on knowledge, anticipation, and early identification of needs; communication; care-coordination infrastructure; skilled home health providers; and the parent-provider relationship. Many CMC require PHHC to live safely outside of the hospital. Although the PHHC process involves multiple steps and participants, pediatricians' understanding of the process is the foundation of PHHC success. Fostering interagency relationships, increasing longitudinal care coordination, and investing in the PHHC infrastructure may reduce the burden placed on families and CMC as they navigate the complex process of PHHC.

Gender differences in career satisfaction, moral distress, and incivility: a national, cross-sectional survey of Canadian critical care physicians.

In a national cross-sectional survey, we aimed to i) characterize work profile, workload, and income, ii) evaluate work satisfaction, work-life integration, burnout, incivility, mentorship, and promotion, iii) gauge future physician resource requirements, and iv) assess for differences by gender and specialty (adult vs pediatric). We developed, tested, and administered an electronic questionnaire. We analyzed 265 fully and 18 partially completed questionnaires. Respondents were predominantly men (192; 72.5%) and adult intensivists (229; 87.7%). Most intensivists (226/272; 83.1%) were somewhat satisfied or strongly satisfied with their career. Over one third of respondents felt that their daily intensive care unit (ICU) clinical work (113/270; 41.9%), yearly non-ICU clinical work (86/248; 34.7%), administrative work (101/264; 38.3%), and in-house call coverage (78/198; 39.4%) were somewhat high or very high. Nearly half (129/273; 47.3%) felt that their work schedule did not leave enough time for personal/family life. Twenty-seven percent (74/272) of respondents were experiencing at least one symptom of burnout when surveyed and 171/272 (63%) experienced burnout symptoms more than once a month. Ten percent planned to retire in the next five years and 17-20% retired each five-year interval thereafter. Compared with men, women felt that their work schedule left significantly less time for personal/family life (χ2 [4] = 11.36, P < 0.05, odds ratio [OR] = 0.55), experienced more frequent and severe burnout symptoms (F [1,120.91] = 8.04, P < 0.01, OR = 2.0; F [1,112.80] = 4.91, P < 0.05, OR = 1.9), and more incivility in their division (χ2 [1] = 13.73, P < 0.001, OR = 2.8), hospital (χ2 [1] = 8.11, P < 0.01, OR = 2.2), and university (χ2 [1] = 4.91, P < 0.05, OR = 2.3). Although most intensivists were satisfied with their careers, many were dissatisfied with their workload, experienced work-life integration challenges, and acknowledged burnout symptoms. Women intensivists were significantly less satisfied with their careers, experienced greater work-life integration challenges, more frequent and severe burnout symptoms, and greater incivility.

Incorporating point-of-care ultrasound into daily intensive care unit rounds: Another source of interruptions?

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is the use of bedside ultrasonography by the treating clinician, incorporating those images into direct clinical decisions. While there are a number of different techniques and training pathways in this relatively new modality, there has been little discussion around the logistics of integrating POCUS into the standard critical care "business day" of ward rounds, procedures and meetings. This article explores some of these aspects and presents data from an online survey of POCUS practitioners.

DRG revenues and costs of multimorbid patients in the German DRG system - Analysis of the surgical treatment of chronic wounds at a university hospital based on the example of pressure ulcers

The treatment of complex patients with chronic wounds, such as pressure ulcers, is often not adequately reimbursed in patients with need for daily intensive care due to multimorbidity and chronic co-diagnoses. The present study analyses revenues, principle cost factors as well as possible complications. We analysed 51 patients with the DRG principle diagnosis of decubitus stage III and IV, treated in our maximum care clinic in 2014 and 2015. Duration of stay, count of surgical procedures as well as frequency and type of complication were analysed. Costs and revenues per patient were calculated and compared to the mean costs stated by the institute of revenue and costs calculations (InEK). In 25 of 51 cases, the costs exceeded the revenues, which was due to an excessively long stay at the hospital, complications or a large number of operative procedures. On average, the patients could not be treated cost-efficiently at our clinic. The treatment of most multimorbid patients with decubital ulcers is often not adequately reimbursable within the German DRG system. A strict treatment algorithm with a reduced number of operations and intensive patient care are helpful approaches, but may not be sufficient to reduce cost-intensive complications. It seems important to re-evaluate the current DRG codes for these cases.

Palliative care in the trauma ICU.

The benefits of palliative care for critically ill patients are well recognized, yet acceptance into surgical culture is lagging. With the increasing proportion of geriatric trauma patients, integration of palliative medicine within daily intensive care services to facilitate goal-concordant care is imperative. Misconceptions of palliative medicine as it applies to trauma patients linger among trauma surgeons and many continue to practice without routine consultation of a palliative care service. Aggressive end-of-life care does not correlate with an improved family perception of medical care received near death. Additionally, elderly patients near the end of life often prefer palliative treatments over life-extending therapy, and their treatment preferences are often not achieved. A new geriatric-specific prognosis calculator estimates the risk of mortality after trauma, which is useful in starting goals of care discussions with older patients and their families. Shifting our quality focus from 30-day mortality rates to measurements of symptom control and achievement of patient treatment preferences will prioritize patient beneficence and autonomy. Ownership of surgical palliative care as a service provided by acute care surgeons will ensure that our patients with incurable injury and illness will receive optimal patient-centered care.

Daily Informal Multidisciplinary Intensive Care Unit Operational Debriefing Provides Effective Support for Intensive Care Unit Nurses.

Although most organizations have comprehensive formal stress management programs, an approach that is most likely to be helpful is the one that is curtailed specifically to the needs of a particular nursing unit. With that aim in mind, a process of daily intensive care unit (ICU) multidisciplinary operational debriefings was developed. These operational debriefings use the same concepts as traditional debriefing, yet are offered on a daily basis, rather than being reserved only for major stressful events. Furthermore, they are informal, brief (15 minutes), and multidisciplinary (intensivists, ICU nurses, chaplain, ICU social worker, ICU nutritionist, and ICU pharmacist). The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the perceptions of attendees in relation to the implementation of daily operational debriefings. Six months into the process, the attendees were requested to fill out an anonymous voluntary survey. Questions were simple, straightforward, and close ended. Of 47 potential respondents (42 nurses, 2 nurse managers, 1 social worker, 1 pharmacist, and 1 nutritionist), 42 completed the survey. Results revealed that an overwhelming majority felt that daily operational debriefings provide an effective unit-based support system, a sense of connectedness, and a commitment to the well-being of others. Nearly 50% of the respondents felt that the overall stress level in the ICU decreased, and 98% indicated operational daily debriefings should continue. Daily Informal multidisciplinary ICU operational debriefing provides an effective support system for ICU nurses. A modified model could be replicated for non-ICU units as well.

Effect of chlorhexidine bathing in preventing infections and reducing skin burden and environmental contamination: A review of the literature.

Chlorhexidine bathing is effective in reducing levels of pathogens on skin. In this review, we examine the evidence that chlorhexidine bathing can prevent colonization and infection with health care-associated pathogens and reduce dissemination to the environment and the hands of personnel. The importance of education and monitoring of compliance with bathing procedures is emphasized in order to optimize chlorhexidine bathing in clinical practice.

Continuous Glucose Monitoring in Patients Undergoing Extracorporeal Ventricular Assist Therapy.

BackgroundDysregulations of blood glucose (BG) are associated with adverse outcome in critical illness; controlling BG to target appears to improve outcome. Since BG-control is challenging in daily intensive care practice BG-control remains poor especially in patients with rapidly fluctuating BG. To improve BG-control and to avoid deleterious hypoglycemia, automated online-measurement tools are advocated. We thus evaluated the point-accuracy of the subcutaneous Sentrino® Continuous Glucose Monitoring System (CGM, Medtronic Diabetes, Northridge, California) in patients undergoing extracorporeal cardiac life support (ECLS) for cardiogenic shock.MethodsManagement of BG was performed according to institute’s standard aiming at BG-levels between 100–145 mg/dl. CGM-values were recorded without taking measures into therapeutic account. Point-accuracy in comparison to intermittent BG-measurement by the ABL-blood-gas analyzer was determined.ResultsCGM (n = 25 patients) correlated significantly with ABL-values (r = 0.733, p<0.001). Mean error from standard was 15.0 mg/dl (11.9%). 44.2% of the readings were outside a 15% range around ABL-values. In one of 635 paired data-points, ABL revealed hypoglycemia (BG 32 mg/dl) whereas CGM did not show hypoglycemic values (132mg/dl).ConclusionsCGM reveals minimally invasive BG-values in critically ill adults with dynamically impaired tissue perfusion. Because of potential deviations from standard, CGM-readings must be interpreted with caution in specific ICU-populations.

Human error in daily intensive nursing care.

Objectives: to identify the errors in daily intensive nursing care and analyze them according to the theory of human error. Method: quantitative, descriptive and exploratory study, undertaken at the Intensive Care Center of a hospital in the Brazilian Sentinel Hospital Network. The participants were 36 professionals from the nursing team. The data were collected through semistructured interviews, observation and lexical analysis in the software ALCESTE(r). Results: human error in nursing care can be related to the approach of the system, through active faults and latent conditions. The active faults are represented by the errors in medication administration and not raising the bedside rails. The latent conditions can be related to the communication difficulties in the multiprofessional team, lack of standards and institutional routines and absence of material resources. Conclusion: the errors identified interfere in nursing care and the clients' recovery and can cause damage. Nevertheless, they are treated as common events inherent in daily practice. The need to acknowledge these events is emphasized, stimulating the safety culture at the institution.

Outcomes of a Fluid Goal Incorporated Into a Daily Intensive Care Unit Checklist in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Outcomes of a Fluid Goal Incorporated Into a Daily Intensive Care Unit Checklist in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Humanization in intensive care from the perspective of the health team/A humanização em terapia intensiva na perspectiva da equipe de saúde/La humanización en terapia intensiva en la perspectiva del equipo de salud

Objective: To grasp the meaning of humanized care for the health team of professionals engaged in intensive care. Methodology: Phenomenological study conducted with 26 professionals from the intensive care unit of a university hospital in Ribeirão Preto. Open interviews were conducted between September 2007 and January 2008. Results: The analysis of the interviews, the themes have emerged: Humanization means recognizing the patient in their uniqueness and completeness; make technical X humanization in daily intensive care; working conditions and their implications for the humanization of care in intensive care; and the preparation of the team to build a humanized care. Conclusion: The situations that consider the patient in its entirety and uniqueness in the intensive care unit are not always considered, even if doing this dichotomy make technical and humanization. The team's working conditions point to difficulties in the construction of humanized care. The preparation of the team shows up limited, with training, meaningful strategy for reflection and recreation of everyday care. Keywords: Patient care team. Intensive care. Humanization of assistance.

Successful Long-Term Airway Stabilization With a Modified Pacifier in a Syndromic Infant

Airway management is one of the key aspects of neonatal anesthesia, and an oropharyngeal airway is used in daily intensive care practice to relieve upper-airway obstruction. Cleft palate is among the various congenital malformations that can cause difficult airway management. We describe a syndromic infant with alobar holoprosencephaly, whose long-term airway patency was maintained with a modified infant pacifier. We would like to share our experience and contribute to the literature with the introduction of a readily available and easily-inserted apparatus.