More than half of critical care nurses believe sedation is needed to minimize discomfort and distress among patients receiving mechanical ventilation, according to survey results published recently in the American Journal of Critical Care.

Jill L. Guttormson, Ph.D., R.N., from the Marquette University College of Medicine in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and his team surveyed 177 members of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses using the Nurse Sedation Practices Scale to measure nurses’ self-reported sedation practices and factors that affect them.

Nurses’ attitudes toward sedating patients receiving mechanical ventilation have shifted in the past decade, with fewer nurses now believing that all patients should be sedated. However, more than half of nurses still agree that sedation is needed for patients’ comfort, highlighting the need to consider nurses’ attitudes when seeking to optimize sedation practices during mechanical ventilation.

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