scholarly journals Interruptions of activities experienced by nursing professionals in an intensive care unit

Author(s):  
Daniele de Oliveira Prates ◽  
Ana Elisa Bauer de Camargo Silva

ABSTRACT Objective: to analyze the interruptions experienced by nursing professionals while undertaking care activities. Method: an observational study undertaken in two intensive care units. Two nurses observed 33 nursing professionals for three hours. The data were recorded in real time, using a semistructured instrument. Results: after 99 hours of observation of 739 activities, it was identified that 46.82% were interrupted, resulting in 7.85 interruptions per hour. On average, the interruptions compromised 9.42% of the nursing professionals' worktime. The activities geared towards indirect care of the patient suffered the highest number of interruptions (56.65%), with the nursing records being the activity interrupted most. The principal source of the interruptions was external, coming from the health professionals (51%), and the main causes were those related to the patients (34.70%) and to interpersonal communication (26.47%). Conclusion: the activity of nursing suffers a high number of interruptions, mainly caused by the health professionals themselves, indicating that the work environment needs to undergo interventions aiming to reduce the risk of compromising of the professional's performance and to increase the patients' safety.

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Marques Frota ◽  
Lívia Moreira Barros ◽  
Luana Nunes Caldini ◽  
Thiago Moura De Araújo ◽  
Joselany Áfio Caetano

Resumo: Objetivou-se identificar os riscos ocupacionais em profissionais de enfermagem em Unidade de Terapia Intensiva. Trata-se de uma revisão integrativa realizada no período de fevereiro a março de 2012. A amostra final do estudo contou com 12 artigos que atenderam os critérios de inclusão. Foi possível identificar que os riscos ocupacionais mais presentes na UTI estão associados aos riscos de acidentes, seguido do biológico, químico e ergonômico. Frente a esta realidade é necessário a implementação de medidas para a prevenção dos riscos, para diminuição do absenteísmo e a promoção da saúde do trabalhador de enfermagem.Palavras-Chave: Enfermagem do trabalho, Riscos ocupacionais, Unidades de Terapia Intensiva.Occupational health of nurses in the Intensive Care UnitAbstract: This study aimed to identify occupational hazards in nursing professionals in the Intensive Care Unit. It is an integrative review carried out during February-March 2012. The final sample included 12 articles that met the inclusion criteria. It was possible to identify the occupational hazards present in the ICU are more associated with the risk of accidents, followed by biological, chemical and ergonomic. Faced with this reality is necessary to implement measures to prevent risks, to reduce absenteeism and promote worker health nursing.Keywords: Occupational Health Nursing, Occupational Risks, Intensive Care Units.Salud en el trabajo de las enfermeras en la Unidad de Cuidados IntensivosResumen: Este estudio tuvo como objetivo identificar los riesgos laborales en los profesionales de enfermería en la Unidad de Cuidados Intensivos. Se trata de una revisión integradora llevada a cabo durante febrero y marzo de 2012. La muestra final incluyó 12 artículos que cumplieron los criterios de inclusión. Fue posible identificar los riesgos laborales presentes en la UCI son más asociado con el riesgo de accidentes, seguido por agentes biológicos, químicos y ergonómicos. Frente a esta realidad es necesario aplicar medidas para prevenir los riesgos, para reducir el absentismo y fomentar la enfermería profesional de la salud.Palabras Clave: Enfermería del Trabajo, Riesgos Laborales, Unidades de Cuidados Intensivos.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 999
Author(s):  
Henry Dore ◽  
Rodrigo Aviles-Espinosa ◽  
Zhenhua Luo ◽  
Oana Anton ◽  
Heike Rabe ◽  
...  

Heart rate monitoring is the predominant quantitative health indicator of a newborn in the delivery room. A rapid and accurate heart rate measurement is vital during the first minutes after birth. Clinical recommendations suggest that electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring should be widely adopted in the neonatal intensive care unit to reduce infant mortality and improve long term health outcomes in births that require intervention. Novel non-contact electrocardiogram sensors can reduce the time from birth to heart rate reading as well as providing unobtrusive and continuous monitoring during intervention. In this work we report the design and development of a solution to provide high resolution, real time electrocardiogram data to the clinicians within the delivery room using non-contact electric potential sensors embedded in a neonatal intensive care unit mattress. A real-time high-resolution electrocardiogram acquisition solution based on a low power embedded system was developed and textile embedded electrodes were fabricated and characterised. Proof of concept tests were carried out on simulated and human cardiac signals, producing electrocardiograms suitable for the calculation of heart rate having an accuracy within ±1 beat per minute using a test ECG signal, ECG recordings from a human volunteer with a correlation coefficient of ~ 87% proved accurate beat to beat morphology reproduction of the waveform without morphological alterations and a time from application to heart rate display below 6 s. This provides evidence that flexible non-contact textile-based electrodes can be embedded in wearable devices for assisting births through heart rate monitoring and serves as a proof of concept for a complete neonate electrocardiogram monitoring system.


Critical Care ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Delaney ◽  
E. Litton ◽  
K. L. Melehan ◽  
H.-C. C. Huang ◽  
V. Lopez ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Sleep amongst intensive care patients is reduced and highly fragmented which may adversely impact on recovery. The current challenge for Intensive Care clinicians is identifying feasible and accurate assessments of sleep that can be widely implemented. The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility and reliability of a minimally invasive sleep monitoring technique compared to the gold standard, polysomnography, for sleep monitoring. Methods Prospective observational study employing a within subject design in adult patients admitted to an Intensive Care Unit. Sleep monitoring was undertaken amongst minimally sedated patients via concurrent polysomnography and actigraphy monitoring over a 24-h duration to assess agreement between the two methods; total sleep time and wake time. Results We recruited 80 patients who were mechanically ventilated (24%) and non-ventilated (76%) within the intensive care unit. Sleep was found to be highly fragmented, composed of numerous sleep bouts and characterized by abnormal sleep architecture. Actigraphy was found to have a moderate level of overall agreement in identifying sleep and wake states with polysomnography (69.4%; K = 0.386, p < 0.05) in an epoch by epoch analysis, with a moderate level of sensitivity (65.5%) and specificity (76.1%). Monitoring accuracy via actigraphy was improved amongst non-ventilated patients (specificity 83.7%; sensitivity 56.7%). Actigraphy was found to have a moderate correlation with polysomnography reported total sleep time (r = 0.359, p < 0.05) and wakefulness (r = 0.371, p < 0.05). Bland–Altman plots indicated that sleep was underestimated by actigraphy, with wakeful states overestimated. Conclusions Actigraphy was easy and safe to use, provided moderate level of agreement with polysomnography in distinguishing between sleep and wakeful states, and may be a reasonable alternative to measure sleep in intensive care patients. Clinical Trial Registration number ACTRN12615000945527 (Registered 9/9/2015).


PLoS ONE ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. e110274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara J. Drew ◽  
Patricia Harris ◽  
Jessica K. Zègre-Hemsey ◽  
Tina Mammone ◽  
Daniel Schindler ◽  
...  

1998 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. R. Webb ◽  
B. Roberts ◽  
F. X. Breheny ◽  
C. L. Golledge ◽  
P. D. Cameron ◽  
...  

Epidemics of bacteraemia and wound infection have been associated with the infusion of bacterially contaminated propofol administered during anaesthesia. We conducted an observational study to determine the incidence and clinical significance of administration of potentially contaminated propofol to patients in an ICU setting. One hundred patients received a total of 302 infusions of propofol. Eighteen episodes of possible contamination of propofol syringes were identified, but in all cases contamination was by a low-grade virulence pathogen. There were no episodes of clinical infection or colonization which could be attributed to the administration of contaminated propofol. During the routine use of propofol to provide sedation in ICU patients the risk of nosocomial infection secondary to contamination of propofol is extremely low.


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