Stay ConnectedThis show accompanies the ‘Critical Care Global Classroom’ – fortnightly lectures delivered by leading global experts in Critical Care Nursing.
Take a dive into the latest evidence-based best-practice, with leading researchers and speakers.
The audio from each lecture will be released here shortly after the live lecture.
Visit www.continulus.com/lectures for more information.
Copyright: Copyright © 2021 Continulus, All rights reserved.
On any given day, Critical Care Nurses may be called upon to assist with or admit complex, critically injured polytrauma patients into the adult Critical Care Unit. It is essential that nurses possess a solid and accurate understanding of best practice trauma resuscitation principles. This session identifies current, evidence-based practice guidelines for Critical Care Nurses for the restoration of hemodynamic stability and avoidance of complications, following the admission of the adult polytrauma patient to Critical Care. The “ABCDE” approach to trauma patients, shock, oxygenation, ventilation, fluid resuscitation, coagulopathies, and damage-control surgery, is described and discussed.
Determining body fluid balance in critically ill patients is a major challenge, particularly where patients have required extensive resuscitation and/or have renal impairment. Fluid imbalance and overload, key consequences of severe acute kidney injury, can lead to an increase in patient morbidity and mortality. Nurses play a critical role in the assessment of fluid balance and the management of patient care interventions such as renal replacement therapy which allow significant manipulation of body fluid status and require diligent management to ensure effective fluid balance maintenance.
In this lecture, Dr. Chen will talk about how we can implement research evidence into clinical practice. This will include several concepts including implementing change, theoretical domains framework, and process evaluation. An exemplar will be given about implementing same-day discharge following percutaneous coronary intervention from Dr. Chen's doctoral study, together with current evidence for the practice.
Critical care practice is underpinned by policy and research which acknowledges the benefits of patient and family engagement in the intensive care unit. Engagement occurs across a continuum from low to high levels of engagement. In this session we will discuss how patient and family involvement in care delivery can be promoted, ways in which families might be engaged while their family member is in the ICU, the potential benefits to the patient, family and health professionals, and managing potential challenges. We will also discuss some novel approaches for more active family engagement and partnerships in the ICU.
We demonstrate the feasibility of introducing a non-ventilatory intervention of prone positioning in the management of patients with moderate to severe ARDS, which has been applied and demonstrated in the Regional Intensive Care in South East Queensland. This strategy could be replicated and adopted in other similar ICU's who do not have the ability to provide Tertiary services, such as extra-corporeal life support. The advantage of this process is its easy applicability and rapid implementation, especially in this era of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Is the spread of multi-drug resistant (MDRO) organisms a major problem in your patient care environment? Then consider designing a plan of attack using the latest evidence and implementation strategies to win the bug war. MDRO’s contribute to serious infections and higher mortality in acute and critically ill patients. This session will explore modes of transmission to outline a strategy for source control. Habitual care practices including bathing, oral hygiene, and handwashing will be examined closely as potential sources. An in-depth focus on the development of evidence-based care practices and protocols and the examination of resources and systems that support source control and reduce transmission will be discussed. Let’s eradicate the bugs together.
This talk examines key definitions relating to medication safety, including medication errors, adverse drug events, and adverse drug reactions. The talk also identifies the prevalence of medication errors, the outcomes and risk factors associated with medication errors in intensive care. After providing the context in which medication errors occur in intensive care, consideration is given to various interventions that have been shown to impact on reducing medication errors.
Patients continue to deteriorate. In this presentation, we will identify the context, the challenges, the solutions, and the future in relation to the nurse’s role in recognising and responding to patient deterioration.
Capnography has the unique ability to aid clinicians in assessing both ventilation and blood flow. In this program, a review of the physiology that allows exhaled CO2 to monitor ventilation and perfusion is presented. The emphasis in this program is using capnography to prevent over-sedation and monitoring of blood flow. Due to the ability to assess both ventilation and perfusion, capnography has been called the “15-second vital sign”. The use of capnography is likely to quickly grow throughout the hospital and even into pre-hospital settings.
A tour through common and not-so-common infections of the nervous system, with a focus on clinical presentation, treatment, and outcomes.
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