What is the state of current practice for withdrawal of life support (WDLS) in your intensive care unit? Kirchhoff and Kowalkowski surveyed 1000 randomly selected AACN nurses and found the following:

Recommendations included formal training and best practice standards that support nurses in providing WDSL, including innovations that facilitate patient-centered care and a compassionate practice environment for nurses.

—Maureen Seckel,rn,apn,msn,aprn-bc,ccrn,ccns

See Article, pp 532–542

Pasion and colleagues compared 3 methods to measure central venous pressure (CVP) and pulmonary artery pressure (PAP): (1) end-expiratory graphic recording (currently recommended), (2) monitor cursor-line display, and (3) monitor digital display. The researchers measured pressures in 46 postoperative cardiac patients at 0° and 30° backrest elevation during mechanical ventilation (MV) and spontaneous breathing (SB) and found the following:

When the end-expiratory graphic method is not feasible, the cursor line-method should be used...

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