Aust Crit Care
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Multicenter Study
Personal protective equipment preparedness in Asia-Pacific intensive care units during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: A multinational survey.
There has been a surge in coronavirus disease 2019 admissions to intensive care units (ICUs) in Asia-Pacific countries. Because ICU healthcare workers are exposed to aerosol-generating procedures, ensuring optimal personal protective equipment (PPE) preparedness is important. ⋯ Many ICUs in the Asia-Pacific reported suboptimal PPE preparedness in several domains, particularly related to PPE training, practice, and stock awareness, which requires remediation. Adoption of low-cost approaches such as buddy systems should be encouraged. The complete avoidance of high-flow nasal oxygenation reported by several intensivists needs reconsideration. Consideration must be given to standardise PPE guidelines to minimise practice variations. Urgent research to evaluate PPE preparedness and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 transmission is required.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Mechanical ventilation and mortality among 223 critically ill patients with coronavirus disease 2019: A multicentric study in Germany.
There are large uncertainties with regard to the outcome of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and mechanical ventilation (MV). High mortality (50-97%) was proposed by some groups, leading to considerable uncertainties with regard to outcomes of critically ill patients with COVID-19. ⋯ In this multicentre observational study of 223 critically ill patients with COVID-19, the survival to ICU discharge was 65%, and it was 56% among patients requiring MV. Patients showed high rate of septic complications during their ICU stay.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
The impact of frailty in critically ill patients after trauma: A prospective observational study.
As our population ages, older adults are increasingly exposed to trauma. Frailty could be a useful measure to identify patients at risk of a poor outcome. This study aimed to determine the impact of frailty in an Australian trauma intensive care unit (ICU) population. ⋯ ACTRN12615000039583.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
A comparison of the opinions of intensive care unit staff and family members of the treatment intensity received by patients admitted to an intensive care unit: A multicentre survey.
Achieving shared decision-making in the intensive care unit (ICU) is challenging because of limited patient capacity, leading to a reliance on surrogate decision-makers. Prior research shows that ICU staff members often perceive that patients receive inappropriate or futile treatments while some surrogate decision-makers of patients admitted to the ICU report inadequate communication with physicians. Therefore, understanding the perceptions of both ICU staff and surrogate decision-makers around wishes for ICU treatments is an essential component to improve these situations. ⋯ Family members did not share the same perceptions of treatment with ICU staff. This may result from difficulty in prognostication; challenges in conveying poor prognoses to surrogate decision-makers; and the accuracy of surrogate decision-makers.
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Multicenter Study
Impact of an education program on the performance of nurses in providing oral care for mechanically ventilated children.
Mechanically ventilated children are prone to pneumonia due to immobilization and lack of laryngeal (cough) reflex and swallowing. Nurses are directly responsible for many clinical approaches used to prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia. ⋯ The performance of nurses in providing oral care for mechanically ventilated children improved after the intervention. It is recommended to implement this program for all nurses, regardless of their ward or specialty, based on the clinical practice guidelines. The periodic refreshing in-service training program should be provided to nurses in PICU in order to enhance their performance in providing oral care.