Updated: Apr 7
Best practices for ICU patients involves a collaboration of disciplines. This includes physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, other therapists as well as many ancillary personnel. The goal is to get the patient well enough to get discharged from the ICU.
A recommendation of best practices from the Society of Critical Care Medicine. It consists of:
Mary Watts, BSN, RN, allnurses.com's Content and Community Director recently met with Michele Balas, PhD, RN, CCRN, FAAN to discuss the ABCDEF bundle of care practices in the ICU.
They discussed delirium as a syndrome that ICU caregivers used to think as "the patients are old, they get confused and it will get better by the time they go home.” This confusion is really a consequential experience. Having an episode of delirium in the ICU can cause cognitive changes even after patients are discharged home. "We now know that some common practices can cause more problems.”
For instance, it is not always necessary to include benzodiazepines as part of a sedative cocktail. The use of some drugs can cause a lot of functional decline and they are also associated with problems with memory later on. Dr. Balas went on to state, "ICU care is focused on how to keep patients alive but we must also recognize how pts interact once they leave the hospital.”
She emphasized that the ABCDEF bundle developed in stages:
Nurses were at the forefront of implementing the ABCDEF bundle and as continued studies are conducted, patient care will also continue to improve.
Susie2310
2,121 Posts
This is great information. Very encouraging. The interview was well worth watching. Thank you.
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