Tag: communication
The Association Between Visiting Intensivists and ICU Outcomes
During a period of service reconfiguration, intensivists routinely rostered to work in one ICU worked in another of the hospital's four ICUs. "Home" intensivists were those who continued to work in their usual... read more
Caring for Critically Ill Patients in Humanitarian Settings
Critical care medicine is far from the first medical field to come to mind when humanitarian action is mentioned, yet both critical care and humanitarian action share a fundamental purpose to save the lives and ease the suffering... read more
Number Needed to Treat
Effectively communicating clinical trial results to patients and clinicians is a requirement for appropriate application in clinical practice. In a recent issue of JAMA, Zhao et al1 reported the results from a randomized... read more
Aid Tool Does Not Help Care Decisions in Prolonged Mechanical Ventilation
Treatment decisions commonly have to be made in intensive care units (ICUs). These decisions are difficult for surrogate decision makers and often lead to decisional conflict, psychological distress, and treatments misaligned... read more
Medical Dispatchers’ Perception of Visual Information in Real Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest
Providing medical dispatchers with visual information from the location of OHCA might improve their understanding of the OHCA-scenario, which might enhance communication, their ability to guide more bystanders and improve... read more
When is Patient Feedback Valid? Supporting Patient Feedback as a Catalyst for Change
As part of the revalidation process, doctors must collect patient feedback at least once every five years. While it is encouraging to see patient feedback included in this process, questions must be asked about what message,... read more
Humanizing the ICU
In the midst of trying to correct organ failures, clinicians may neglect to carefully consider what the patient is experiencing: to be on the brink of death, be unable to speak, be stripped naked, have strangers enter the... read more
Poor Hospital Design Has an Impact on Staff, Patients, and Healthcare
Many hospitals in which I have worked have struggled with finances over the last 5 years. There has often been a ban on capital investment on new physical infrastructure projects even extended to repairs in some circumstances.... read more
A New ICU Equipment Diagram… But is it Art?
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. Southmead Hospital (part of North Bristol NHS Trust) has a... read more
Would A Change in Nomenclature for ICUs Promote Less Aggressive Care?
The term "intensive care unit" (ICU) was originally meant to refer to the intensity of the resources allocated to patient care. Today, however, ICU refers more to the intensity of the interventions undergone by the patient.... read more
The Patient, The Whole Patient and Nothing But The Patient
In this short opinion piece, career and consumer advisor Belinda MacLeod-Smith challenges us to consider crucial elements of whole patient care, and how they can be impacted by limiting factors. Caring for someone with ongoing,... read more
The Social Media Index as an Indicator of Quality for Emergency Medicine Blogs
The Social Media Index’s correlation with multiple quality evaluation instruments over time supports the hypothesis that it is associated with overall Web site quality. It can play a role in guiding individuals to high-quality... read more
The Power of Social Media in Medicine and Medical Education
Social media is changing the ways that patients interact with healthcare providers and the healthcare system. It is increasingly common for patients to use information technology to gain access to information and control... read more
Implementing a Standardized Nurse-driven Rounding Protocol in a Trauma-surgical ICU
We instituted several interventions in our trauma and surgical ICU aimed at improving communication and teamwork between RNs and MDs. Informal feedback indicated greater satisfaction among RNs and MDs with the working environment.... read more
Communicating with Conscious and Mechanically Ventilated Critically Ill Patients
Ventilator-dependent patients in the ICU often experience difficulties with one of the most basic human functions, namely communication, due to intubation. Although various assistive communication tools exist, these are infrequently... read more
Organ and Tissue Donation Education for Critical Care Residents
Qualitative data corroborated that residents need more exposure to clinical cases, especially regarding DCD donors. A standardized education curriculum would be beneficial for all residents within the ICU. Developing a better... read more
Can Better Teamwork in the ICU Save Lives?
Effective teamwork is the goal of any workplace. But few settings offer higher stakes than the fast-paced, life-or-death environment of a hospital intensive care unit (ICU). Team collaboration in ICUs is an area ripe for... read more
The Practice of Respect in the ICU
Although "respect" and "dignity" are intuitive concepts, little formal work has addressed their systematic application in the ICU setting. After convening a multidisciplinary group of relevant experts, we undertook a review... read more
Social Media in Critical Care: What’s All the Fuss About?
The way we communicate and learn has been revolutionized by technology. Almost all of us carry a smartphone these days, so we are never more than a phone call, message or text away from family, friends and colleagues. This... read more
The Answer My Friend is Blowin’ in your Nose – High Flow Nasal Oxygen
High flow nasal oxygen is a novel device that actively humidifies and heats air to make flows of up to 60 liters a minutes tolerable. These incredibly high flows are important, because in order to provide 100% fiO2 to patients... read more
A Pilot Study of Eye-Tracking Devices in ICU
Eye-tracking devices have been suggested as a means of improving communication and psychosocial status among patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). This study was undertaken to explore the psychosocial impact and communication... read more
Words that Heal: ICU Journals at Penn Help Patients and Staff
After years of planning, Penn Presbyterian began offering the journals in January to help prevent post-intensive care syndrome or PICS, a set of physical and emotional problems gaining attention as more people survive an... read more
