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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1995

Care: an ethical foundation for critical care nursing.

Critical care nursing by definition focuses on human responses to life-threatening problems. An increasing number of ethical dilemmas confronts the critical care nurse. A traditional principled orientation to ethical reasoning requires detachment that does not acknowledge the special nature of the nurse-patient relationship and, by itself, does not give satisfactory direction in resolving ethical dilemmas. An ethic of care that acknowledges the special relationship and connection of one human being with another may provide the necessary guidance to assist the nurse in resolving these dilemmas. Critical care nursing practice based on an ethic of care acknowledges and legitimizes care for patients as well as oneself.

Critical Care↗
PubMed2003

Personal use of complementary and alternative therapies by critical care nurses.

Critical care settings are stressful to nurses, and exposure over time may contribute to stress-related symptoms and illnesses. Nurses' personal use of complementary and alternative therapies (CAT) may lessen the effects of stress and contribute to their overall well-being and health maintenance. A national survey of critical care nurses who are members of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses revealed that a majority (96.4%) of critical care nurse respondents were using one or more CAT for personal use or had consulted a provider for CAT therapy. The most common therapies used were exercise, diet, massage, and prayer (or spiritual direction). Nurses' personal use of CAT was related to having knowledge of more types of CAT, use of more CAT in practice, a perception of benefits of greater numbers of CAT, more openness to use, more types of CAT recommended to patients, and a perception of more barriers to use in their institutional setting. Data support our model that links nurses' personal use to use in practice. Educational programs to promote nurses' knowledge and personal use of CAT could lead to an increase in appropriate use of CAT in professional practice and potential benefits to critical care patients and their families.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Caring for the lesbian, gay, or bisexual patient: issues for critical care nurses.

Critical care nurses have a moral obligation to provide quality care for all of their patients. Many nurses lack information about lesbian, gay, and bisexual patient issues or feel uncomfortable working with such clients. This article explores some of the stereotypes that create negative attitudes about lesbian, gay, and bisexual people and offers suggestions for critical care nurses who wish to become better educated about these clients.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1998

Stress relief for critical care nurses.

Critical care nurses' stress levels have increased due to patient-focused care models that supplement staffing with unlicensed assistive personnel. Stat nurse programs can alleviate nurses' anxiety by providing short-term professional critical care assistance without disrupting structured health care models.

Burnout, Professional↗
PubMed2001

Examining critical care nurses' critical incident stress after in hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

The object of this study was to determine if critical care nurses' emotional responses to having performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation were indicative of critical incident stress. A descriptive approach was employed using a survey questionnaire of 31 critical care nurses, with supportive interview data from 18 of those participants. Analysis of the data generated from the questionnaire indicated that the respondents experienced thought intrusion and avoidance behaviour. A majority of those interviewed disclosed that they had experienced a wide range of emotional stressors and physical manifestations in response to having performed the procedure. The findings from both questionnaire and interview data were congruent with signs of critical incident stress, as described in the literature. This has been found to be detrimental to employees' mental health status and, for this reason, employers have a duty of care to minimise the risk of its occurrence and to manage problems as they arise.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Cardiovascular chronobiology: implications for critical care nursing.

Critical care clinicians must consider known expected circadian rhythms when interpreting fluctuations in patients' hemodynamic values. As noted in the case study, knowledge of circadian rhythmicity in cardiovascular variables may help clinicians anticipate hemodynamic changes and develop and evaluate chronobiologically sensitive interventions, including prescriptions for activity, modification of the timing of medications, and provision of protective interventions for patients with disrupted rhythms. Felver provides excellent guidelines for the systematic review of possible causes for overt changes in circadian patterns. This review highlights the need to evaluate (1) the effect of disease progression on temporal patterns, (2) the patient's underlying endogenous rhythms, (3) the zeitgebers that may entrain the patient's biological rhythms (e.g., light, social cues, and sleep-wake cycles), and (4) how the zeitgebers change in a critical care environment. The body of literature on the rhythmic fluctuation of cardiovascular variables in healthy, young subjects is extensive. During the past 10 years, research on the chronobiologic fluctuations of numerous physiological variables (cardiovascular, pulmonary, hematologic, and endocrine) in critical illness has increased. As information on the fluctuations in critically ill patients increases, critical care clinicians will be challenged to develop and evaluate a chronobiologically sensitive plan of care for these patients.

Humans↗
PubMed1990

Mentoring: nurturing the critical care nurse.

Mentoring is an active process that is currently receiving widespread attention in education, in the corporate world, and increasingly in health care. Job satisfaction of the critical care nurse may be related to the fulfillment of personal needs and goals. The attainment of these needs and goals ultimately will lead to increased job productivity, which in turn will promote cost-effectiveness, an outcome cherished by management. Therefore, recognizing the worth of job satisfaction to the institution and the possibility that mentoring may have an effect on it among the professional staff may be a key to the future of improved health care and cost reduction in an increasingly specialized and technologic health care environment. Certainly, the nursing shortage is no longer news to the lay public or those of us engaged in the practice of nursing. In critical care that shortage is acutely apparent. Attrition of qualified critical care nurses is increasing and various solutions to the shortage have been proposed, some being met with more enthusiasm than others. A more basic solution might be to answer the question, "How can we maintain a high quality of patient care while promoting job satisfaction and instilling a sense of self-worth within the critical care nurse?" Critical care nurses need to play a pivotal role in nurturing and developing other critical care nurses as a means to retain those individuals. How can they do that effectively? Mentoring is one answer.

Critical Care↗
PubMed2002

Early socialization of new critical care nurses.

BACKGROUND: Critical care nurses provide care to acutely ill patients, yet little is known about the early socialization processes of new nurses to critical care units from the nurses' perspectives. OBJECTIVES: To explore the early socialization processes of critical care nurses. METHODS: A grounded theory design was used to generate a local theory of how critical care nurses experience socialization. Interviews and journals of participants (N = 10) during the first 4 to 5 months of the socialization experiences were collected. Preceptors were interviewed to triangulate data. Orientation materials and field notes were examined. RESULTS: A process of 5 phases was uncovered: the prodrome, welcome to the unit, disengagement/testing, on my own, and reconciliation. Participants experienced difficulty while being evaluated by preceptors early in the orientation process because of changing expectations. Participants also expressed disappointment in their level of comfort at the end of the orientation. The theory termed "navigating the challenge" explains the nature of the changing expectations that new critical care nurses face during their socialization process. CONCLUSIONS: This exploratory study defines the phases that new critical care nurses experience during the early socialization process. Phase-specific recommendations are made on the basis of the results of the study.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Health practices of critical care nurses: are these nurses good role models for patients?

BACKGROUND: Few studies have explored the health practices of critical care nurses. Critical care nurses routinely teach patients about using healthy practices such as low-fat diets, exercise, and routine screening examinations. However, it may be even more important that the nurses themselves have a healthy lifestyle, thus serving as role models for patients. Nurses are selling a product, and that product is health. The best salespersons are those who are genuinely committed to their product and model its benefits. Therefore, critical care nurses' healthful practices can have a profound effect on their patients. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this descriptive exploratory study was to examine critical care nurses' responses to three questions about health practices in their daily lives: (1) What are critical care nurses doing currently to stay healthy? (2) Do they anticipate making any changes in their lifestyle in the future? (3) Would they recommend their lifestyle to their patients? METHODS: One hundred twenty-seven critical care nurses attending a midwestern critical care conference completed a two-part questionnaire designed to produce a health profile. In a man-on-the-street approach, 23 nurses participated in an interview via video camera. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data retrieved from the questionnaires. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed for themes with a constant comparative method. RESULTS: More than 70% of the critical care nurses who responded engage in exercise and follow a healthy, low-fat diet. Seventy-one percent said that they anticipate making a change in their lifestyle in the future, and 70% said that they would recommend their lifestyle to their patients. Five themes emerged from the videotaped interviews: (1) Heart-healthy practices predominated the responses. (2) Incorporating a healthy lifestyle was easy for some and a struggle for others. (3) Critical care nurses readily listed barriers to healthy living. (4) The nurses had a positive attitude about their healthy lifestyles and felt optimistic about being role models for their patients. (5) Future plans were either singular in focus or limited to maintenance of current health habits. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the nurses reported practicing a healthy lifestyle and thought that they were good role models for patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Baccalaureate nurse educators' and critical care nurse managers' perceptions of clinical competencies necessary for new graduate baccalaureate critical care nurses.

BACKGROUND: Although nurse educators and nurse managers have disagreed about which clinical competencies are necessary for new graduates to begin working in critical care, the competencies are in need of revision and reassessment. OBJECTIVES: To validate a list of beginning-level competencies and to compare baccalaureate nurse educators' and critical care nurse manager's current perceptions of beginning clinical competencies for new baccalaureate graduates in critical care settings. METHODS: An expert panel of nurses from across the United States critiqued a questionnaire about which clinical competencies were considered relevant to critical care nursing practice. The revised questionnaire, containing 105 clinical competencies, was mailed to a randomly selected sample across the United States. Forty-one baccalaureate nurse educators and 41 critical care nurse managers completed the mail survey questionnaire (94% response rate) by rating the necessity ("essential," "desired," or "not required") of the clinical competencies for new baccalaureate nurses. RESULTS: A high degree of agreement was generally seen between nurse educators and nurse managers on the necessity ratings of the 105 competencies. The majority of nurse educators and nurse managers rated 81 of the 105 competencies as either "essential" or "desirable." Only five competencies showed considerable disagreement between nurse educators and nurse managers, and none of these competencies were rated "essential" by more than a few raters in either group. CONCLUSIONS: The agreement between nurse educators and nurse managers supports a competency list for baccalaureate nursing curricula and hospital inservice programs to integrate new graduates into critical care.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed1990

Heart sound simulation: how useful for critical care nurses?

Forty critical care nurses participated in a 2-hour teaching program using a heart sound simulator to increase skill in recognition of heart sounds. Mean test scores increased 10 points from the pretest to the first posttest (t = 11.9, p = 0.0001), and this increase was maintained on the second posttest 3 weeks later. Medical intensive care unit and coronary care nurses scored higher than the other critical care nurses. There was a low correlation between recognition of sounds and years of critical care experience. The correlation between the subjects' self-rating of knowledge of heart sounds and their actual skills was also low. These findings suggest that a similar teaching program might be useful for critical care nurses.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Smoking and attitudes toward smoking among clinical nurse specialists, critical care nurses, and medical-surgical nurses.

This study surveyed pulmonary clinical nurse specialists, oncology clinical nurse specialists, critical care nurses, and medical-surgical nurses to assess smoking prevalence, attitudes toward the educator and exemplar role, and reasons for smoking. Of the 120 questionnaires distributed, 114 (95%) were returned. Of the oncology clinical nurse specialists, 23.1% were former smokers and none reported currently smoking. Prevalence of smoking among the remaining groups was 28.5% for pulmonary clinical nurse specialists, 30% for medical-surgical nurses, and 46.7% for critical care nurses. More than 70% of respondents agreed with statements about the nurse as educator and exemplar (role model) in smoking cessation. This study provides evidence of a lower prevalence of cigarette smoking among nurses prepared as oncology clinical specialists and greater support for the educator and exemplar role than previously reported.

Adult↗