{"title":"Challenging restricted visiting policies in critical care.","authors":"S M Chow","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The need for family members to visit their loved ones when they have been admitted into the critical care unit was identified in 1979 by Molter in the critical care family needs inventory (CCFNI). This need has been the centre of controversy for critical care units for many years. This article provides an overview of literature that refutes some of the rationales that have been used to restrict family visiting in the critical care unit. An overview of a liberalized (open, contract, inclusive or structured) visiting policy is discussed as an option to the restricted visiting policy.</p>","PeriodicalId":79699,"journal":{"name":"Official journal of the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses","volume":"10 2","pages":"24-7"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"21543466","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Heliox in upper airway obstruction.","authors":"A Fu, A Kopec, M Markham","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The use of a helium-oxygen (heliox) mixture in patients with airway obstruction was used as early as the 1930s. Although heliox does not resolve airway obstruction, it decreases airway resistance providing time to allow other treatments to become therapeutic, and thus, possibly preventing the need for intubation and mechanical ventilation. Despite new and advanced treatment options in airway obstruction, heliox continues to be a choice for treatment. It is important for critical care nurses to understand the rationale for the use of heliox, the mechanism of action and administration of heliox. Through a case study, the authors discuss the physical properties of helium and its use in airway obstruction. Nursing management of patients receiving heliox is also reviewed.</p>","PeriodicalId":79699,"journal":{"name":"Official journal of the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses","volume":"10 4","pages":"12-3; quiz 14-5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"21731988","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Holistic care in the critical care setting: application of a concept through Watson's and Orem's theories of nursing.","authors":"C Hurlock-Chorostecki","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>For the critical care nurse, two concerns increase the complexity of competent nursing care. First, the intrusion of technology into the critical care environment is more conducive to the use of the medical model than to a nursing theoretical framework. Technology has quantified body functions that were once elusive to man, enabling practitioners to treat dysfunction and disease. Technology, which has provided health care equipment that can maintain breathing, circulation and other important quantifiers of life, is welcomed by a society that fears finality. Second, the critical care nurse must remain cognizant that technology cannot care for the whole being who is in a health care crisis. Holistic caring, the being-with, the empathy, the interconnected experience of need and response within a nursing theoretical framework is the nurse's art. It is this art of caring that is the qualifier of life. It is the balance of technological competency with the art of nursing that promotes adaptations in health crises. Application of holistic caring through established nursing theories such as Watson's theory of nursing and Orem's theory of nursing enable the critical care nurse to acquire an expert level of nursing care.</p>","PeriodicalId":79699,"journal":{"name":"Official journal of the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses","volume":"10 4","pages":"20-5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"21731992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Innovation fund report: guidelines for withdrawal of life support.","authors":"J Tigert, S Siegel, D Smith","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":79699,"journal":{"name":"Official journal of the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses","volume":"10 4","pages":"26-9"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"21731994","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bridging the gap.","authors":"G MacDonald","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":79699,"journal":{"name":"Official journal of the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses","volume":"10 1","pages":"4-5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1999-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"21215890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Canadian critical care nurses and advance directives.","authors":"B Leith","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article describes the findings from a survey which was conducted during the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses (CACCN) September 1997 national conference. The survey was intended to identify Canadian critical care nurses' experience, knowledge, and opinions of advance directives. Major findings included that 80% of those surveyed had cared for at least one patient who had an advance directive, 89% were in favour of advance directives, 54% were familiar with their provincial legislation relating to advance directives, and 34% could correctly differentiate between an instructional and a proxy directive. The findings from this study suggest that while the majority of respondent Canadian critical care nurses have had some experience with advance directives, most require further education in order to use advance directives effectively in their daily practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":79699,"journal":{"name":"Official journal of the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses","volume":"9 1","pages":"6-11"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"21215959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Communication needs of patients receiving mechanical ventilation: a pilot study.","authors":"M I Fitch, S Remus, B Stade","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Patients experiencing mechanical ventilation are unable to speak while being dependent on others for their physical needs. The purpose of this work is to describe the communication needs of individuals who are mechanically ventilated. This article reports the findings of a pilot study to assess communication needs of ventilated patients and to compare patients' perceptions of their needs with their nurses' perceptions of their needs. Twenty-seven nurse-patient comparisons were generated. The only statistically significant correlation was observed for the needs concerning social stimulation. Nurses and patients did not agree on the patients' communication needs in areas of information-seeking, information-sharing or request for assistance. Further research is needed to verify these findings.</p>","PeriodicalId":79699,"journal":{"name":"Official journal of the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses","volume":"9 3","pages":"16-23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"21215956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Workload measurement for resource nurses in the critical care unit: a pilot study.","authors":"N VandenBergh, J Skibicki, N Pratter","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Faced with financial and staffing pressures, the resource nurses in a large pediatric critical care unit asked, \"How do we spend our time at work?\" When a literature review showed no evidence of an applicable type of survey, a workload measurement tool was developed and the workload measured over a six-week period. Large amounts of time were shown to be spent on tasks or jobs that could be delegated to someone who was not a nurse. This study provided documentation to support the hiring of a staffing secretary and a pharmacy technician. An increased need to be available to offer educational and professional growth and developmental support to colleagues was also identified.</p>","PeriodicalId":79699,"journal":{"name":"Official journal of the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses","volume":"9 2","pages":"16-8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"21215962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Certification communiqué.","authors":"B Morgan","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":79699,"journal":{"name":"Official journal of the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses","volume":"9 3","pages":"10-1"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"21216033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Do physical restraints prevent patients from removing invasive therapeutic devices?","authors":"B Leith","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Many critical care nurses have cared for patients who have removed invasive therapeutic devices such as endotracheal tubes or intravenous lines despite secure physical restraints. Recently medical and nursing authors have begun to question the effectiveness and appropriateness of physical restraints. Through a literature review, this article explores the question: \"Do physical restraints prevent patients from removing invasive therapeutic devices?\" and identifies some alternatives to restraints that may be appropriate for use in critical care areas.</p>","PeriodicalId":79699,"journal":{"name":"Official journal of the Canadian Association of Critical Care Nurses","volume":"9 3","pages":"31-4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1998-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"21215958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}