American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
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Intensive care unit (ICU) patients experience hypoglycemia at nearly 4 times the rate seen in non-ICU counterparts. Although inpatient hypoglycemia management relies on nurse-driven protocols, protocol adherence varies between institutions and units. ⋯ Adherence to nurse-driven hypoglycemia protocols can be equally effective in ICU and non-ICU patients. Further research is needed to determine protocol adherence barriers and patient characteristics that influence response to hypoglycemia interventions.
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Early mobility interventions in intensive care units (ICUs) are safe and improve outcomes in subsets of critically ill adults. However, implementation varies, and the optimal mobility dose remains unclear. ⋯ More daily out-of-bed mobility for ICU patients was associated with shorter mechanical ventilation duration and hospital stays, suggesting a dose-response relationship between daily mobility and patient outcomes. However, relationships differed across ICU subpopulations.
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Sepsis alerts commonly used for intensive care unit (ICU) patients can lead to alert fatigue because these patients generally meet 1 or more of the criteria for systemic inflammatory response syndrome. To identify ICU patients at greatest risk for sepsis-related consequences, an ICU-specific sepsis alert was implemented. ⋯ An ICU sepsis alert using modified systemic inflammatory response syndrome criteria was effective for identifying sepsis in critically ill medical patients.