American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses
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Stress and burnout are plaguing critical care nurses across the globe and leading to high levels of turnover. Resilience-building strategies such as mindfulness, self-care, and well-being can help shield nurses from the negative effects of workplace stress. As the first line of defense, nursing schools could provide students with strategies that build resilience; however, little is known about the availability of such resources in nursing education. ⋯ Training in practices to build resilience and prevent burnout is essentially absent from accredited nursing schools. This highlights an important opportunity to modify existing curricula to include preventative strategies-such as developing positive coping skills- that could mitigate symptoms of workplace stress in future generations of nurses.
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Pain, agitation, and delirium are associated with negative outcomes in critically ill patients. Reducing variation in pain, agitation, and delirium management among institutions could improve care. ⋯ Variation in assessment and management of pain, agitation, and delirium in British Columbia intensive care units highlights opportunities to improve care.
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Observational Study
Patient-Reported Outcomes Associated With Sedation and Agitation Intensity in the Critically Ill.
Patient-reported outcomes are essential to understand the relationship between patients' perception of sedation and clinicians' assessments of sedation. ⋯ Agitation index was significantly associated with several patient-reported outcomes and thus seems to be a promising descriptor of patients' experience.
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Professional quality of life is the quality a person feels in relation to work. For critical care nurses, it is composed of compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. Professional quality of life is affected by work environment. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) has identified 6 standards for a healthy work environment. ⋯ Authentic leadership is the strongest predictor of compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. Therefore, improving leadership should be a priority in intensive care units seeking to improve nurses' professional quality of life.