Most patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) suffer secondary brain injury that results in higher mortality rates, additional cognitive and physical impairments, and a longer intensive care unit (ICU) stay. ICU nurses are a critical part of the team in detecting and preventing this injury. Is your care based on the guidelines for managing these patients?
In this issue, McNett and colleagues describe which physiological and situational variables influenced ICU nurse judgments regarding secondary brain injury.
The Brain Trauma Foundation and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons have published guidelines for this care. Nurses should do the following:
See Article, pp 250–260
Adherence to ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) prevention guidelines is variable and reported to be affected by lack of training, lack of an adequate infection control program, and lack of guideline knowledge. In this issue, El-Khatib and colleagues evaluated ICU providers’ knowledge of VAP guidelines and found the following:
The...
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