Clinical Pearls

Treatment with mechanical ventilation causes stress and anxiety that typically requires sedative and analgesic medications. Distinguished Research Lecturer for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), Chlan, summarizes her research on music intervention as a nonpharmacological method to promote relaxation and reduce anxiety. Her team has found:

Chlan and colleagues also studied the feasibility of patient-controlled sedation. They found:

Further study is needed, however these are promising and empowering alternatives to help adult MVPs to manage their own anxiety.

See Article, pp 293–300

Obesity is a major US health concern that is linked with serious medical diseases. Management of trauma can be challenging with obese patients and there are conflicts in the literature on whether obese patients use more resources during their hospitalization. Lee and colleagues examined the relationship between patient/injury characteristics and hospital resource usage across 3 body mass index (BMI) categories. Looking at 9771 adult trauma patients they...