American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
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The Barthel Index, originally developed and validated to assess activities of daily living in patients with neuromuscular disorders, is commonly used in research and clinical practice involving critically ill patients. ⋯ The Barthel Index is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing physical functioning at intensive care unit discharge.
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As a longtime researcher in interprofessional collaborative care and deputy editor-in-chief of the Journal of Interprofessional Care, I was dismayed by the imprecise use of language in the article by Colbenson et al.1 The title says "interprofessional," the first sentence of the abstract says "interdisciplinary," and the abstract also uses the word "multidisciplinary." These words have different meanings and are not interchangeable. The first implies collaborative interactions, the second is often used by physicians to imply physicians with different specialties interacting (eg, oncologist and pathologist), and the third simply means that persons from different professions are in the same space per- haps working in parallel, perhaps sequentially. ⋯ The theme "interdisciplinary dynamics" is really about multidisciplinary interactions and is minimally described. If nurses feel devalued and not involved in decision-making, the dynamics are not interprofessional or even interdisciplinary.