American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
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Am. J. Crit. Care
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Critically ill patients often require sedation and analgesia. Scales have been developed to provide clinicians with sedation targets. Daily interruption of continuous infusions of sedatives and sedation protocols improve patients' outcomes. However, perceived instability of a patient's condition can prevent implementation of appropriate sedation targets and daily interruption of sedation. ⋯ The severity-of-illness score had good interrater variability as a tool for determining sedation targets and identifying candidates for daily interruption of sedation. Future study on how use of the score affects sedative dosing and outcomes is needed.
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Comment Letter
Critical thinking a necessary factor in nursing workload.