American Association Of Critical-Care Nurses’ National Survey of Facilities and Units Providing Critical Care

2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin T. Kirchhoff ◽  
Nancy Dahl
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
Quality Indicators ◽  
American Association ◽  
Response Rate ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Initial Response ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Critical Care Units

• Background Little information is available nationally about critical care units and nurses. What is known about nurses in hospitals is generally not broken down among all the specialties. • Objectives To describe issues of workforce, compensation, and care specific to critical care units and nurses who work in them. • Methods The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses conducted a survey of randomly selected facilities with critical care units in the United States. Facilities were solicited via e-mail to respond to a survey on the World Wide Web and provide information on operations, evaluations, nursing staff reimbursement and incentives, staffing, and quality indicators. Responding facilities also provided contact information for units in the facilities. Those units were surveyed about operations, acuity systems, staffing, policies on visitation and end-of-life care, administrative structure, documentation, certification, professional advancement, vacancy/floating, staff satisfaction, orientation, association membership, wages, advanced practice nursing, and quality indicators. • Results The initial response rate (120 of 658 eligible facilities) was 18.2%, and 300 of 576 solicited units nominated by the facilities responded, yielding a 52.1% response rate for the second phase. • Conclusions These survey data define the scope and intensity of services offered and provide more specific figures about staffing issues and unit practices than has been accessible before. Healthcare providers may use this information for benchmarking purposes, especially for instances in which the tables provide data for each particular type of critical care unit.

Safeguarding the Patient and the Profession: The Value of Critical Care Nurse Certification

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
American Association ◽  
The United States ◽  
White Paper ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Specialized Knowledge ◽  
Care Nurse ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
The Public

Today’s critically ill patients require heightened vigilance and extraordinarily intricate care. As skilled and responsible health professionals, the 403 000 critical care nurses in the United States must acquire the specialized knowledge and skills needed to provide this care and demonstrate their competence to the public, their employers, and their profession. Recognizing that nurses can validate specialty competence through certification, this white paper from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses and the AACN Certification Corporation puts forth a call to action for all who can influence and will benefit from certified nurses’ contribution to patient care.

Nurse/physician collaboration: solving the nursing shortage crisis

1992 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
SA Evans ◽  
R Carlson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
Nursing Shortage ◽  
American Association ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Critical Care Medicine ◽  
The Status

This summary article discusses the status of the nursing shortage in the United States, with emphasis on successful strategies to address it. Liaisons between the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and the Society for Critical Care Medicine, as well as with the American College of Cardiology, are highlighted, with primary emphasis on the strategy of nurse-physician collaboration.

Assisted suicide, recent judicial decisions, and implications for critical care nurses

1997 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 71-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
GS Wlody
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
The United States ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Value Systems ◽  
Physician Assisted Suicide ◽  
Death With Dignity Act ◽  
The Individual

The passage of the Oregon Death With Dignity Act on November 8, 1994, heralded a wake-up call for healthcare professionals. Oregon, the first state to systematically "ration care" was thought to be a fertile ground for testing new and, some say, radical concepts in healthcare and government. Although the act was not implemented because it was tied up in legal action until February 1997, the fact that more than 50% of the voters in Oregon voted for it mandates that healthcare providers listen to their patients. Patients want more control of their pain, the way they die, and the resources spent on their care in the final days of their lives. Thoughts of future suffering engender great fear on the part of healthcare consumers. Concern exists that physician-assisted suicide in the ICU will affect not only physicians but also nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, and other clinicians as terminally ill patients make requests for assisted suicide while in the acute and critical care setting of the hospital. Critical care nurses must examine their value systems, review the Code for Nurses, and make their own decisions about participation in deliberately ending lives of patients. With the impending Supreme Court decision due in July 1997, the court may leave these issues to the individual states, opening the door for assisted suicide to occur throughout the United States. Therefore, the possibility will remain that critical care nurses may be put in positions in which physicians are providing assistance to patients who wish to commit suicide and are requesting nurses' assistance to do so.

Engaging Families to Participate in Care of Older Critical Care Patients

2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonya R. Hardin
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
American Association ◽  
Significant Others ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Older Patient ◽  
Critical Care Units ◽  
Optimal Outcomes ◽  
The Family ◽  
Critical Care Patients

Provision of optimal outcomes for older adults can be understood through the use of the American Association for Critical-Care Nurses Synergy Model. These outcomes can be enhanced if strategies are designed to improve the characteristics of patients and families as described in the Synergy Model. When older adults are admitted to critical care units, spouses, children, and friends are in a position to participate in care. This column examines the Synergy Model’s patient characteristic of participation in care relative to involvement of the family and significant others of the older patient as a method of enhancing optimal outcomes.

Compassion Fatigue and the Healthy Work Environment

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesly Kelly ◽  
Michael Todd
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
Work Environment ◽  
Compassion Fatigue ◽  
American Association ◽  
Medical Center ◽  
Academic Medical Center ◽  
Compassion Satisfaction ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Healthy Work Environment ◽  
Healthy Work

Background:Burnout is a concern for critical care nurses in high-intensity environments. Studies have highlighted the importance of a healthy work environment in promoting optimal nurse and patient outcomes, but research examining the relationship between a healthy work environment and burnout is limited.Objective:To examine how healthy work environment components relate to compassion fatigue (eg, burnout, secondary trauma) and compassion satisfaction.Methods:Nurses (n = 105) in 3 intensive care units at an academic medical center completed a survey including the Professional Quality of Life and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ Healthy Work Environment standards.Results:Regression models using each Healthy Work Environment component to predict each outcome, adjusting for background variables, showed that the 5 Healthy Work Environment components predicted burnout and that meaningful recognition and authentic leadership predicted compassion satisfaction.Conclusions:Findings on associations between healthy work environment standards and burnout suggest the potential importance of implementing the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ Healthy Work Environment standards as a mechanism for decreasing burnout.

scholarly journals Interpersonal Communication among Critical Care Nurses: an Ethnographic Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-64
Author(s):  
Tayebeh Mahvar ◽  
Nooredin Mohammadi ◽  
Naima Seyedfatemi ◽  
AbouAli Vedadhir
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
Interpersonal Communication ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Critical Conditions ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Critical Care Units ◽  
Effective Care ◽  
High Level ◽  
Communication Culture

Introduction: Interpersonal communication in critical care units is one of the most important factors due to complicated and critical conditions of patients. Nurses’ confrontation with ethical distresses and conflict resolution techniques are often influenced by the culture governing these units. This study aimed to explore interpersonal communication culture among critical care nurses. Methods: A focused ethnographic approach was used to conduct study in Iran. The research method was based on the research evolutionary cycle model recommended by Spradley (1980). Data were collected over six months through purposeful sampling and semi structured interviews (n=18) and participation observation (n=43). The data were obtained over six months of observation and interview with participants. Data analysis was done by Spradley method and was interpreted to discover the meaning units from the obtained themes. MAXQDA10 was used to manage data. Results: Five major domains of observations and high-level consensus were extracted in this study, including grouping, work-life interaction, professionalism, organizational atmosphere and experience. Conclusion: Development of interpersonal communication culture is influenced by various factors. Besides, the working models and nurses’ use of workspace are indispensable components of effective communication at workplace. The findings of this study can be helpful in determining appropriate strategies and practices to resolve communication problems among nurses by specifying challenges, thereby leading to proper communication among nurses, promoting this communication and finally providing high quality and more effective care.

scholarly journals Assessing the caring behaviors of critical care nurses

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samah Anwar Shalaby ◽  
Nouf Fahad Janbi ◽  
Khairiah Khalid Mohammed ◽  
Kholud Mohammed Al-harthi
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Critical Care ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Affecting Factors ◽  
Caring Behaviors ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Critical Care Units ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The Impact

Objective: To assess the critical care nurses’ perception of their caring behaviors and factors affecting these behaviors.Methods: Participants of this descriptive correlational exploratory study included 277 critical care nurses selected conveniently from nurses worked in all critical care units in King Khalid Hospital, Jeddah. A self-reported questionnaire namely, “Critical Care Nurses Caring Behavior Perception” developed by the researchers after reviewing related literature was used to assess caring behaviors and their affecting factors as perceived by critical care nurses.Results: Seventy percent of the nurses aged between 31 to 50 years old and more than half of nurses had ICU experience ranged from 6 to 10 years, while two thirds of nurses had no previous training about caring behaviors. The study findings revealed that the majority of nurses had high scores of perceived caring behaviors, whereas the mean of their perception was 296.96 ± 18.32. There was a statistical significant positive relationship between nurses’ perception and their work circumstances, workload, job satisfaction, educational background and patient characteristics.Conclusions: It is important to consider critical units’ circumstances, nurses’ educational background, job satisfaction, as well as the nature of critically ill patients in order to promote nurses awareness and implementation of caring behaviors. Moreover, replication of the current study using qualitative approach for in-depth analysis of the impact of factors could affecting caring behaviors on nurses’ perception in various highly specialized critical care units.

Family Presence During Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Invasive Procedures: Practices of Critical Care and Emergency Nurses

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 246-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. MacLean ◽  
Cathie E. Guzzetta ◽  
Cheri White ◽  
Dorrie Fontaine ◽  
Dezra J. Eichhorn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Care ◽  
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation ◽  
American Association ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Invasive Procedure ◽  
Critical Care Nurses ◽  
Invasive Procedures ◽  
Emergency Nurses ◽  
Family Presence ◽  
Do So

• Background Increasingly, patients’ families are remaining with them during cardiopulmonary resuscitation and invasive procedures, but this practice remains controversial and little is known about the practices of critical care and emergency nurses related to family presence. • Objective To identify the policies, preferences, and practices of critical care and emergency nurses for having patients’ families present during resuscitation and invasive procedures. • Methods A 30-item survey was mailed to a random sample of 1500 members of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses and 1500 members of the Emergency Nurses Association. • Results Among the 984 respondents, 5% worked on units with written policies allowing family presence during both resuscitation and invasive procedures and 45% and 51%, respectively, worked on units that allowed it without written policies during resuscitation or during invasive procedures. Some respondents preferred written policies allowing family presence (37% for resuscitation, 35% for invasive procedures), whereas others preferred unwritten policies allowing it (39% for resuscitation, 41% for invasive procedures). Many respondents had taken family members to the bedside (36% for resuscitation, 44% for invasive procedure) or would do so in the future (21% for resuscitation, 18% for invasive procedures), and family members often asked to be present (31% for resuscitation, 61% for invasive procedures). • Conclusions Nearly all respondents have no written policies for family presence yet most have done (or would do) it, prefer it be allowed, and are confronted with requests from family members to be present. Written policies or guidelines for family presence during resuscitation and invasive procedures are recommended.

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