Innovations in Immediate Care: Transforming Emergency Medicine
2024 21 May
Emergency medicine is a field of healthcare that treats illnesses or injuries requiring immediate medical attention, including disaster medicine, critical care medicine or emergency medical services, among many other specialisations. Within this context, technology has exerted a substantial influence alongside forward-thinking practices that radically...Read more
Tele-Critical Care Nursing: The Well-Established Predecessor of Today’s Virtual Nursing
2024 06 Mar
Teresa Rincon PhD, RN, FCCM Assistant Professor Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing UMass Chan Medical School USA Cited more than 100 times in other publications, A Second Set of Eyes: An Introduction to Tele-ICU was publiRead more
Zoom-On: Elie Azoulay
2024 17 Jan
Elie Azoulay is a Professor of Medicine and head of the medical ICU at Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris. Prof Azoulay graduated from Paris-Cité University. He completed his training in pneumonology in 1996 and intensive care in 1999, and he earned a PhD in respiratory physiology in 2002 on chemotherapy and G-CSF-related pulmonary toxicity....Read more
Diagnosing Non-Convulsive Seizures in the ICU: Tackling the Top Challenges
2022 21 Jan
One clinical factor complicating the work of ICU physicians and nurses is the difficulty of diagnosing nonconvulsive status epilepticus (NCSE)—an invisible condition that must be managed aggressively to prevent lasting damage to the brain. Because the prevalence of NCSE among neurological patients can reach up to 60%, and because it becomes increasingly...Read more
The Importance of Reliable Reprocessing of Hospital Beds
2021 25 Jun
Reliable hygiene is currently a topic that shapes every aspect of our daily lives. More than ever before, the successful fight against dangerous viruses and multi-resistant germs in hospitals and other healthcare facilities is particularly important. High occupancy rates and resulting staff shortages are amplifying the challenge. However, hospital...Read more
Tsunami of COVID-19 Patients in India
2021 25 May
Expert Interview with Prof Shirish Prayag, Director, Critical Care Medicine at Prayag Hospital Shree Medical Foundation and Editorial Board Member, ICU Management and Practice. What is the current state of COVID-19 in India? The current state is really devastating. We are facing a tsunami - not just a wave of patients - but a tsunami, really....Read more
Resuscitative Transesophageal Echocardiography Programme in the ED: 5 Tips for Success
2021 30 Apr
Over the past few years, inspired by landmark publications, 1,2,3 demonstrating the feasibility, safety and clinical value of transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) performed by emergency physicians (EPs), a number of U.S. hospitals have established TEE programmes based in their emergency departments (EDs). In 2017, the American College of Emergency...Read more
How Can Hospital Beds Support Nursing Staff In The ICU?
2021 16 Apr
The ICU is one of the most challenging places to work in a hospital. Caring for and treating critically ill patients is as emotionally demanding as it is physically straining. Burdened with serious illnesses, patients in the ICU often need more attention than patients on regular wards. The nursing job has been complex and stressful before...Read more
HOW TO VENTILATE COVID-19 PATIENTS?
2021 05 Jan
TWINSTREAM ® ICU WITH P-BLV ® (PULSATILE BILEVEL VENTILATION) The Austrian critical care ventilator TwinStream ® ICU was designed with the explicit purpose of saving critically respiratory-distressed patients. In particular those patients with severe lung diseases (e.g. ARDS) who can no longer be supported with conventional ventilation. ...Read more
Setting Up a Point-of-Care Ultrasound Programme in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
2020 10 Nov
An ever-expanding array of applications have been developed for ultrasound, including its goal-directed use at the bedside, often called point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). In Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and many other European and Asian countries, neonatologist-performed, targeted POCUS is now a routine practice in neonatal intensive...Read more
Zoom On: Jean-Louis Vincent
2020 30 Oct
Jean-Louis Vincent is a Consultant in the Department of Intensive Care at Erasme University Hospital in Brussels and a Professor of Intensive Care at the Université libre de Bruxelles.He is the editor-in-chief of ICU Management & Practice, Critical Care, and Current Opinion in Critical Care and member of the editorial board of many other healthcare...Read more
Zoom On: Megan E. Brunson
2020 11 Aug
Megan E. Brunson is the 2019-2020 president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) board of directors. AACN is the world’s largest specialty nursing organisation, with more than 120,000 members and over 200 chapters in the United States. Since 2007, Brunson has been the night shift supervisor in the cardiovascular ICU (CVICU)...Read more
The Role of Point-of-Care Ultrasound in COVID-19
2020 18 Apr
A Talk with Italian Critical Care Physician Enrico Storti Hospitals all over the world are working to rapidly expand their capacity to treat critically ill patients with COVID-19. To find out how hospitals on the frontlines of the pandemic are coping and the lessons learned that could help other hospitals prepare, FUJIFILM SonoSite’s Chief Medical...Read more
To Have a Healthy Work Environment, Mind the Gap
2020 13 Jan
Staffing. Burnout. Retention. Quality. You don’t often speak to direct care nurses or nurse managers about their units without these common themes emerging. They’re all elements associated with the health of the nursing work environment — a topic that the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has been studying for over a decade. ...Read more
Zoom On: Rolf Rossaint
2019 09 Aug
Rolf Rossaint is a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Anaesthesiology of the University Hospital at the RWTH University Aachen, Germany. Prof. Rossaint has published several high-quality studies dealing with the treatment of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). He has also been actively involved in research on the pathophysiology...Read more
Zoom On: Sapna Kudchadkar
2019 03 Jul
Sapna Kudchadkar is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Pediatrics and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her areas of interest include sleep disturbances in critically ill children, paediatric delirium prevention and management, sedation, and paediatric ICU rehabilitation...Read more
Zoom On: Bernd Saugel
2019 03 Apr
Bernd Saugel, MD, EDIC is a Professor of Anesthesiology and works as a consultant in the Department of Anesthesiology, Center of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany. Prof. Saugel is a specialist in anaesthesiology, intensive care medicine, and internal medicine and holds a European...Read more
The establishment and provision of an acute kidney injury service at a tertiary renal centre
2019 23 Jan
The acute kidney injury service at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was launched in October 2015. Key stakeholders were identified and included in the service development from the beginning and throughout which supported the smooth introduction of the service into the hospitals. This included the renal directorate clinical director,...Read more
Managing delirium in the ICU with sleep guardians
2019 23 Jan
Introduction Up to 85% of critical care patients may experience some form of delirium, but it can be very easily missed (Inouye et al. 2001; Page 2008) particularly in a very busy 24 bedded General Critical Care Unit that is also the regional centre for Trauma and neurosurgery. The unit admits both level 2 and 3 patients within the same clinical...Read more
A third-party partner for critical care?
2019 15 Jan
Challenges and advantages of engaging a clinical staffing and management service for your ICU Trusting a third-party partner to staff and manage your ICU isn’t a decision to be made lightly. Your hospital’s reputation is at stake. Even more important, so are your patients’ health and safety. Finding the right partner to help you deliver...Read more
A new ICU equipment diagram…but is it Art?
2018 18 Dec
Design for Southmead ICU It is well established that the Arts have a clear contribution to make in the delivery of an improved healthcare experience for patients, service users and staff. ‘Arts and health are, and should be firmly recognised as being, integral to health, healthcare provision and healthcare environments, including supporting staff.'...Read more
Communication myths of anaesthetists
2018 30 Nov
Vital minutes before unconsciousness The myth that anaesthetists pick the specialty ‘because you don’t need to talk to your patients’ persists. Whether said in jest or disdain this concept gains ground because, yes for much of the time, our patients are mostly ‘asleep’. But this ignores the vital communication that occurs prior to anaesthesia;...Read more
How can a smartphone be used for haemodynamic monitoring?
2018 28 Nov
The parameters of the Capstesia app are described. After taking a photo of the arterial waveform on the monitor screen, and cropping it to the signal of interest, the picture is sent to the Capstesia server via a mobile Internet connection. The heart rate and systolic and diastolic arterial pressures are manually entered into the app to determine...Read more
Epinephrine for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
2018 27 Aug
Insights from the PARAMEDIC2 trial and future improvements Perkins et al. have advanced the long-awaited PARAMEDIC2 trial (Perkins et al. 2018). They deserve to be congratulated for such a well-interpreted and well-designed contribution. The study’s two main outcomes are as follows: the Epinephrine group had a significantly improved inpatient survival...Read more
Prompt cards in the Emergency Department
2018 23 Aug
Human factors are a well recognised cause of discrepancies in patient care that can lead to adverse outcomes. In a busy Emergency Department (ED) setting, when dealing with the sickest patients at all hours and with a rotating workforce, there is an increased potential for inconsistent care despite clear evidence based protocols and guidelines on...Read more
A letter to Kathy - from an intensive care nurse
2018 16 Jul
As a nurse working in intensive care I have moments in which emotions get much deeper than expected. My own vulnerability is confronting. Do I lose control or do I experience the essence of my job as a nurse? Kathy, your story on YouTube and your saying “the touch that isn’t effective or that didn’t hurt” made a deep impression on me. Every...Read more
INTUBE study: airway management practice in critically ill patients
2018 19 Jun
Why study endotracheal intubation? Endotracheal intubation (ETI) in critically ill patients is a potentially life-threatening procedure, and approximately one-third of ETIs are complicated by severe hypoxia, cardiovascular collapse and cardiac arrest. Critically ill patients are prone to severe complications as the consequence of the underlying...Read more
Antibiotic decisions in the ICU: a dragon’s tale
2018 19 Jun
Medical decision-making about antibiotic use in critically ill patients is challenging and complex. The need for antibiotic stewardship requires judicious prescription and choice of antimicrobials, as the need for effective therapy has to be put in balance with the need to limit undue selection pressure, and all this must be done in a context of...Read more
Bright spots: music in the ICU
2018 19 Jun
The intensive care unit (ICU) is a rather obscure place for many people. It is a place where you are exposed to the fragility of existence, where you have to deal with the fine line between life and death. Every day I desperately try to illuminate this dark place, with a conversation, with a joke, with trying to facilitate the patients’ or families’...Read more
How ICU diaries can help patients and families
2018 04 Jun
I work in a small intensive care unit (ICU) where we have been writing diaries since 1992. Initially, they were just little black books with notes by staff and families on how patients were doing during their ICU stay. In 1999, we began taking photos of the patients to illustrate their critically ill period, to help them understand and see what happened....Read more
