The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician’s First Year

The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly: A Physician’s First Year

In medical school, Matt McCarthy dreamed of being a different kind of doctor—the sort of mythical, unflappable physician who could reach unreachable patients. But when a new admission to the critical care unit almost died... read more

Drowned: Nurses Under Water

Drowned: Nurses Under Water

Nurses are expensive. We are the largest professional workforce in healthcare, and with over 3.1 million professional nurses in the country, it appears that we are large in number but small as a priority. Nurses are overworked.... read more

Airway Pressure-time Curve Profile Detects Tidal Recruitment/Hyperinflation

Airway Pressure-time Curve Profile Detects Tidal Recruitment/Hyperinflation

Airway pressure-time curve profile (stress index) detects tidal recruitment/hyperinflation in experimental acute lung injury. Shape of the Paw-t curve detects tidal recruitment and tidal hyperinflation. Pulmonary computed... read more

The Case of the Dying Soldiers: Practical Applications of Pharmacology Concepts in Critical Care

The Case of the Dying Soldiers: Practical Applications of Pharmacology Concepts in Critical Care

Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics are very important when it comes to treating critically ill or critically injured patients. However, when we teach this topic we usually present things using complex equations and explanations... read more

Indicators of ICU Capacity Strain

Indicators of ICU Capacity Strain

We identified and characterized 16 indicators of strained ICU capacity across the spectrum of healthcare quality domains. Future work should aim to evaluate their implementation into practice and assess their value for evaluating... read more

A Qualitative Study Exploring Moral Distress in the ICU Team

A Qualitative Study Exploring Moral Distress in the ICU Team

This study identified the ways in which moral distress manifests across critical care disciplines in different ICU environments. Our results have potential implications for patient care. First, when clinicians alter the content... read more

The Prevalence of Compassion Fatigue and Burnout among Healthcare Professionals in ICUs

The Prevalence of Compassion Fatigue and Burnout among Healthcare Professionals in ICUs

The true prevalence of burnout, compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma in ICU healthcare professionals remains open for discussion. A thorough exploration of emotional distress in relation to... read more

Delirium a Dreaded Scourge Underdiagnosed in Hospitals

Delirium a Dreaded Scourge Underdiagnosed in Hospitals

Pain medications, infections, medical illnesses, ventilators, dehydration or withdrawing from alcohol can be risk factors for delirium. Hospitals are one of the biggest culprits. They're noisy, busy and not conducive to getting... read more

Experience and Needs of Family Members of Patients Treated with ECMO

Experience and Needs of Family Members of Patients Treated with ECMO

Sudden onset of an unexpected and severe illness is associated with an increased stress experience of family members. Only one study to date has explored the experience of family members of patients who are at high risk of... read more

Why Do Nurses Quit?

Why Do Nurses Quit?

Estimates are that up to 30-50% of nurses leave their position or quit nursing altogether in the first year. What drives nurses away? Some new grads do not survive the shock. Nursing school is insufficient preparation for... read more

Psychological Burnout and Critical Care Medicine

Psychological Burnout and Critical Care Medicine

While you are likely proud to be a critical care medicine (CCM) practitioner, does work routinely leave you increasingly drained? Do you feel resentful about requests for "futile interventions" and unwilling to absorb others'... read more

Alarm and Alert Fatigue in Critical Care

Todd Fraser, MD, speaks with Bradford D. Winters, PhD, MD, FCCM, about alarm and alert fatigue in critical care. Alarm fatigue is the desensitization that clinicians experience to frequent alarms, particularly those that... read more

Solutions to Alleviate Burnout

Solutions to Alleviate Burnout

A range of factors drives clinician burnout, including workload, time pressure, clerical burden, and professional isolation. Clerical burden, especially documentation of care and order entry, is a major driver of clinician... read more

Moral distress and its contribution to the development of burnout syndrome among critical care providers

Moral distress and its contribution to the development of burnout syndrome among critical care providers

Correlation between moral distress and burnout was assessed among all intensive care unit (ICU) and the step–down unit (SDU) providers (physicians, nurses, nurse technicians and respiratory therapists). Researchers reported... read more

Effect of Nocturnal Sound Reduction on the Incidence of Delirium in ICU Patients

Effect of Nocturnal Sound Reduction on the Incidence of Delirium in ICU Patients

The incidence of delirium in ICU patients was significantly reduced after implementation of a nocturnal sound-reduction protocol. However, reported sleep quality did not improve. A significant difference in slope in the percentage... read more

My ICU Patient Lived. Is That Enough?

My ICU Patient Lived. Is That Enough?

As many as one in three patients sick enough to require a ventilator might develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Anxiety and depression are equally common, if not more so. Others survive critical illness but... read more

Stress Ulcer Prophylaxis in ICU Patients Receiving Enteral Nutrition

Stress Ulcer Prophylaxis in ICU Patients Receiving Enteral Nutrition

Our results suggested that in patients receiving enteral feeding, pharmacologic SUP is not beneficial and combined interventions may even increase the risk of nosocomial pneumonia. We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane... read more