Nursing in critical care
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Nursing in critical care · May 2009
An evaluation of the impact of a tracheostomy weaning protocol on extubation time.
To avoid the possible complications of prolonged intubation, it is necessary and advisable to attempt weaning from the tracheostomy tube at the earliest opportunity. However, while weaning protocols have proven successful in reducing ventilation time of critical care patients, there is little evidence of their use and impact on tracheostomy tube weaning time. ⋯ Although the findings from the study were not statistically significant, they can be seen as clinically significant in terms of patient comfort and reduced dependency in care by a reduction of time with a tracheostomy. It is recommended that a larger scale study be carried out to determine if a tracheostomy weaning protocol does make an impact on length of time to extubation in wider care settings.