All Articles
The Night in the ICU
2020 11 Aug
T hey say that in the world of the intensive care unit (ICU), there is no night. It can be qualified as a lesser day, but not really as a night. The hustle and bustle may be slower, patient flow and activity may be less, conversations may be negligible, and the staff on duty may be limited, but patient care continues, alarms are in place, and the... Read more
Is the Severe COVID-19 Over in Europe?
2020 11 Aug
Is the worst over? Have patients most at risk already been affected and died? Or has the SAR-CoV-2 virus mutated to a less severe form? Where exactly do we stand with COVID-19? U ndoubtedly, the COVID-19 pandemic has been a terrible experience - worse than expected for many worldwide. As we follow the COVID-19 situation, there is a tendency... Read more
Keeping Best Practices in Critical Care During COVID-19
2020 11 Aug
COVID-19 poses several challenges and has made it difficult to measure ICU performance. Sticking to evidence-based interventions can go a long way in improving outcomes and resource utilisation. How it Started Taking care of a COVID-19 patient comes with an initial surprise: there is no standard mindset to guide the physician’s... Read more
Is COVID-19 the Black Swan?
2020 11 Aug
Nassim Taleb, in his book, "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable," describes the term Black Swan as a rare, unknown event, which with hindsight is rationalised. Taleb talks about the human tendency to always find simplistic explanations for unknown events, what he calls the Black Swan theory. Is COVID-19 a black swan?... Read more
COVID-19 Global Response – Strengths, Weaknesses, Success and Failure
2020 11 Aug
An overview of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic – the success of South Korea, the so-called herd-immunity experiment of Sweden and the not-so-brilliant COVID-19 management in the U.K. and the U.S. South Korea's Successful Three-Phased Response to COVID-19 COVID-19 has created havoc around the globe. Some countries have... Read more
COVID-19 and the Potential Effects on the Cardiovascular System
2020 11 Aug
COVID-19 affects the myocardium and myocarditis and cardiac injury is a common condition among hospitalised patients. Landiolol, a new ultra-short acting, intravenous most β 1 selective blocker, can help reduce inflammation and provide therapeutic benefits. Influenza, bacterial pneumonias, respiratory infections and viruses... Read more
The Night Falls in the ICU: Changing Realities for Patients, Relatives & Interdisciplinary Team
2020 11 Aug
Night has fallen in the intensive care unit, and the medical team is smaller. What do physicians, nurses and patients actually feel? An overview of the night falls in the ICU - from the perspective of an ICU team. Brief Description and Comparison with the Day-Time Atmosphere During the day and at night, intensive care units (ICU)... Read more
The Night in the ICU
2020 11 Aug
An overview of the multiple characteristics of life overnight in a critical care ward, the relationships between caregivers, patients and family, and how this complex reality is embedded in an artificial and often unfriendly environment. Introduction Whether it is a matter of keeping on with the hard work - as day and night would... Read more
Nine Nurse-Recommended Design Strategies to Improve Alarm Management in the ICU: A Qualitative Study
2020 11 Aug
We asked intensive care nurses how they experience medical alarms in the critical care context and how they can help ideate strategies for better alarm management. Our study revealed that excessive medical alarms are one of the sources of discomfort at the workspace for critical care nurses and nurses’ wellbeing is fundamental in providing better... Read more
Making Decisions During ICU Night Shifts: Challenges and Considerations
2020 11 Aug
We review the decision-making processes during night shifts focusing on the perspective of residents and fellows. We explore nighttime decisions about extubations, ICU discharge, withholding/withdrawing and night shift cross-coverage. T aking a night shift in the ICU can be challenging, particularly from a resident/fellow perspective.... Read more
Sleep Deprivation and Fatigue Management in the Intensive Care Unit
2020 11 Aug
The impact of sleep deprivation and fatigue on patients and staff in the intensive care unit and how improved sleep, reduced noise disturbances, and more organised shifts could be beneficial for both patients and clinicians. T he World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that average daily sound levels in patient care areas should... Read more
Night Service in the Intensive Care Unit of a University Hospital
2020 11 Aug
This article draws attention to the extensive range of tasks and the stresses and strains during night duty in intensive care units. To this end, the range of activities of night duty nursing staff is presented using the example of the Hannover Medical School. Night Service - An Important Service in the Multiple-Shift System In... Read more
Shadowing the Nightwatch: Nocturnal Activity in the ICU
2020 11 Aug
An article exploring the experience of an intensive care registrar overnight and the evidence supporting admissions, fatigue, judgement and morality in the circadian cycle. A t night, ICU feels like a fortress that has been put to bed for the night, and as a registrar, you have a role blended from sentinel, secretary, detective and... Read more
Engaging the Night Shift Nurse With Activities & Educational Opportunities
2020 11 Aug
Providing different modalities and strategies helps engage the night shift and can enhance job satisfaction, workforce commitment, and recruitment and retention of nurses. C aring for critical care patients during the nightshift hours has many unique challenges. In order to provide high quality nursing care at the bedside, continuing... Read more
Human Factors in Critical Care Medicine
2020 11 Aug
The lack of non-technical skills is associated with poor performance and patient harm in medicine. H uman Factor (HF) is an established scientific discipline that studies the interrelationship between humans, equipment, and work environment. Core aspects of HF, widely known as non-technical skills (NTS), include three dimensions... Read more
Agenda
2020 11 Aug
SEPTEMBER 7-9 ERS 2020 - European Respiratory Society International Congress Virtual conference https://iii.hm/14a7 12-13 ESICM EuroAsia 2020 Hybrid conference Taipei, Taiwan https://iii.hm/14a8 14-15 BACCN 2020 - British Association of Critical Care Nurses Conference Virtual conference... Read more
Superheroes: Behind the Scenes of COVID-19
2020 03 Aug
Are the real heroes only those in the hospital actively caring for COVID-19 patients or are those behind the scenes also playing an important role? Key Points During the pandemic, care is not only necessary for COVID-19 patients but also for those with other illnesses and diseases. Those in primary care have had to switch... Read more
Helping to Get Spain’s Largest COVID-19 Treatment Center Up And Running
2020 03 Aug
The severity of COVID-19 grew chillingly real for Carlos Jimenez by the third week of March, when the disease claimed the life of his closest friend’s father. He realized that he could no longer bear to watch the suffering that had enveloped seemingly every aspect of life. “I would move boxes or whatever else I needed to do,” he says. “I wanted to... Read more
We Salute Our Healthcare Heroes!
2020 03 Aug
The U.S. is one of the countries that has been hit hardest with the COVID-19 pandemic, and the stories about the frontline healthcare staff’s plight are many. Lack of basic protective equipment, overburden, anxiety are just the tip of the iceberg of issues they have to face every day. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF) talked to an unnamed... Read more