American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Oral care interventions and oropharyngeal colonization in children receiving mechanical ventilation.
Recent progress in identification of oral microorganisms has shown that the oropharynx can be a site of origin for dissemination of pathogenic organisms to distant body sites, such as the lungs. ⋯ Use of chlorhexidine combined with nonpharmacological oral care did not decrease the colonization profile, duration of mechanical ventilation, or length of stay in critically ill children receiving mechanical ventilation.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Transparent film dressing vs pressure dressing after percutaneous transluminal coronary angiography.
Pressure dressings have been used as the standard following sheath removal after percutaneous transluminal angioplasty in many institutions. Patients complain about discomfort while the dressing is in place, pain when the dressing is removed after discharge, and skin complications afterward. Many patients have experienced skin irritation where tape has been applied. Nurses have also described difficulty assessing the sheath insertion site in the groin when a pressure dressing is in place. ⋯ As a result of this study, a practice change was made hospital-wide: rather than a standard opaque pressure dressing, a transparent film dressing is used for all patients after removal of a femoral sheath.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Feasibility of a smoking cessation intervention for teens in the emergency department: reach, implementation fidelity, and acceptability.
Traditional efficacy research alone is insufficient to move interventions from research to practice. Motivational interviewing has been adapted for brief encounters in a variety of health care settings for numerous problem behaviors among adolescents and adults. Some experts suggest that motivational interviewing can support a population health approach to reach large numbers of teen smokers without the resource demands of multi-session interventions. ⋯ Further investigation is needed on mechanisms to reduce barriers to participation, especially barriers related to patient acuity.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Animal-assisted therapy in patients hospitalized with heart failure.
Animal-assisted therapy improves physiological and psychosocial variables in healthy and hypertensive patients. ⋯ Animal-assisted therapy improves cardiopulmonary pressures, neurohormone levels, and anxiety in patients hospitalized with heart failure.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Influence of music on the stress response in patients receiving mechanical ventilatory support: a pilot study.
Music is considered an ideal therapy for reducing stress in patients receiving mechanical ventilation. Previous studies of the effect of music on stress in such patients have focused solely on indirect markers of the stress response rather than on serum biomarkers. ⋯ Additional research is needed with a larger sample size to evaluate further the influence of music on biochemical markers of the stress response in patients receiving mechanical ventilatory support. In future studies, confounding factors such as endotracheal suctioning and administration of medications that influence the stress response should be controlled for.