Nurse-led goal-directed lung physical therapy (GDLPT) improved the outcomes of pneumonia in sepsis patients, and was particularly associated with shortened mechanical ventilation duration and ICU stay, and reduced ICU mortality and 28-day mortality.

We performed a prospective 2-phase (before-and-after) study over 3 years. After an observational phase (phase 1, n = 188), we designed, implemented, and evaluated a nurse-led GDLPT protocol (phase 2, n = 359) for pneumonia in sepsis patients in the ICU.

We evaluated 742 critically ill patients with sepsis from January 2017 to January 2020. Among the 742 sepsis patients, 609 were diagnosed with pneumonia and 547 who met the inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study.

Compared with patients in phase 1, patients in phase 2 had significantly shorter mechanical ventilation duration (5 [4, 6] days vs. 5 [4, 8] days, p = 0.037), shorter ICU stay (9 [4, 16] days vs. 9 [6, 20] days, p = 0.010), lower ICU mortality (15.0% [54/359] vs. 25.5% [48/188], p = 0.003), and lower 28-day mortality (16.7% [60/359] vs. 27.1% ([51/188], p = 0.004).

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