Articles: cations.
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Critical care nurse · Apr 2022
Effects of an Electronic Health Record Tool on Team Communication and Patient Mobility: A 2-Year Follow-up Study.
Intensive care unit early mobility programs improve patients' functional status and outcomes. An electronic health record-based communication tool improved interprofessional communication within an early mobility program. Long-term sustainability of this communication tool has not been evaluated. ⋯ Nonsignificant changes in patient outcomes may indicate sustainment of the effect of the communication tool's original implementation. Employing appropriate sustainment techniques is essential to maintain practice change. The electronic health record-based communication tool can improve interprofessional communication within an intensive care unit early mobility program, improving patient outcomes and staff teamwork.
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The new kidney allocation changes with elimination of donor service areas (DSAs) and Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network regions were initiated to improve equity in organ allocation. The aim of this evaluation was to determine the operational, financial, and recipient-related effect of the new allocation system on a large rural transplantation program. ⋯ The new kidney allocation policy has led to an increase in KDPI of donors with longer cold ischemia time, leading to higher delayed graft function rates. This has resulted in increasing logistical and financial burdens on the system. Implementing large-scale changes in allocation based predominantly on predictive modeling needs to be intensely reassessed during a longer follow up.
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Critical care nurse · Apr 2022
Implementing Quantitative Electroencephalogram Monitoring by Nurses in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Nonconvulsive seizures occur frequently in pediatric intensive care unit patients and can be impossible to detect clinically without electroencephalogram monitoring. Quantitative electroencephalography uses mathematical signal analysis to compress data, monitoring trends over time. Nonneurologists can identify seizures with quantitative electroencephalography, but data on its use in the clinical setting are limited. ⋯ An education program for quantitative electroencephalogram interpretation by nurse providers is feasible yet complex, requiring multiple reeducation cycles.