Improving Critical Care Survivorship

This book provides a comprehensive overview of improving critical care survivorship. Comprised of four sections, the text presents interventions that can be used to improve patient outcomes and reduce the burden of post-intensive care syndrome across the arc of care, from the ICU to returning home. The first section of the text focuses on preventing adverse outcomes in the ICU, with an emphasis on implementing early mobilization, engaging and supporting families, and employing various forms of therapy. The second section revolves around enhancing recovery post-ICU, focusing on physical and neurocognitive rehabilitation programs, peer support, and poly-pharmacy management. Community reintegration is the subject of the third section, with emphasis on socioeconomic reintegration, healthcare utilization, and volunteerism in ICU recovery. The book concludes with a section on future considerations, specifically spotlighting preliminary ideas that address long-term sequelae and international collaboration to solve critical care challenges. Written by experts in the field, Improving Critical Care Survivorship: A Guide for Prevention, Recovery, and Reintegration is a valuable resource for critical care clinicians and researchers interested in improving the quality of patient survival after ICU admission.

For many years, intensive care has focused on avoiding immediate death from acute, life-threatening conditions. However, there are increasing reports of a number of lingering consequences for those who do indeed survive intensive care. Examples include on-going high risk of death, neurocognitive defects, significant caregiver burden, and continued high healthcare costs. Surviving Intensive Care, written by the world's experts in this area, is dedicated to better understanding the consequences of surviving intensive care and is intended to provide a synopsis of the current knowledge and a stimulus for future research and improved care of the critically ill.

This text is one of the first comprehensive resources on understanding and working with families in the intensive care unit. The text provides a conceptual overview of the Family ICU Syndrome, a constellation of physical morbidity, psychopathology, cognitive deficits, and conflict. Outlining its mechanisms, the book presents a guide to combating the syndrome with an interdisciplinary team. The text represents the full array of the interdisciplinary team by also spotlighting administrative considerations for health care management and approaches to training different members of the health care team. Family voices are featured prominently in the text as well. The book also addresses the complete trajectory of needs of care, including survivorship and end-of-life care. Written by experts in the field, Families in the Intensive Care Unit: A Guide to Understanding, Engaging and Supporting at the Bedside is a state-of-the-art reference for all clinicians who work with families in the ICU.

Only more recently has it been realized that the intense effort to care for and cure a child with cancer does not end with survival. Continued surveillance and a variety of interventions may, in many cases, be needed to identify and care for consequences of treatment that can appear early or only after several decades and impair survivors' health and quality of life. The more than two-thirds of childhood cancer survivors who experience late effects-that is, complications, disabilities, or adverse outcomes-as a result of their disease, its treatment, or both, are the focus of this report which outlines a comprehensive policy agenda that links improved health care delivery and follow-up, investments in education and training for health care providers, and expanded research to improve the long-term outlook for this growing population now exceeding 270,000 Americans.

Surviving critical illness is not always the happy ending we imagine for patients. Many ICU survivors suffer from a range of long-lasting physical and psychological issues such end stage renal disease, congestive heart failure, cognitive impairment, neuromuscular weakness, and depression or anxiety, which affect their overall quality of life and ability to lead productive lives. This lingering burden or 'legacy' of critical illness is now recognized as a major public health issue, with major efforts underway to understand how it can be prevented, mitigated, or treated. The Textbook of Post-ICU Medicine: The Legacy of Critical Care discusses the science of the recovery process and the innovative treatment regimens which are helping ICU survivors regain function as they heal following trauma or disease. Describing the major clinical syndromes affecting ICU survivors, the book delineates established or postulated biological mechanisms of the post-acute recovery process, and discusses strategies for treatment and rehabilitation to promote recovery in the ICU and in the long term. The chapters are written by an interdisciplinary panel of leading clinicians and researchers working in the field. The book serves as a unique reference for general practitioners, internists and nurses caring for long term ICU survivors as well as specialists in intensive care medicine, neurology, psychiatry, and rehabilitation medicine.

In collaboration with Consulting Editor, Dr. Cynthia Bautista, Dr. Judy Davidson has put together a comprehensive issue on family and patient experience in the ICU. Expert authors have contributed clinical review articles on the following topics: Humanizing Intensive Care: From Theory to Practice; FiCare; Patient's Own Pets in the ICU; Sleep in the ICU; Implementation of a Patient and Family-Centered ICU Peer Support Program at a Veterans Affairs Hospital; Understanding the Experiences of Patients and Families in the ICU: More than Engagement; Implementing a Patient and Family Communication Bundle in the ICU; Integrating Primary Palliative Care into the ICU: The Critical Care Nurse Communicator Program; Bereavement Care in the Adult ICU: Directions for Practice; A review on the Use of Diaries; Supporting Families of Patients with Rare or Unusual Critical Illnesses; and Meeting the Special Needs of Families of CTICU patients. Readers will come away with the information they need to improve family and patients experiences in the ICU.

An essential guide to navigating the journey to recovery from critical illness Millions of patients are admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) each year, one third of whom need a ventilator machine to help them breathe. These critically ill patients may develop health problems related to their illness, injury, ventilator or other treatments. Such problems can continue after the patient leaves the hospital. LANGE: After the ICU: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Supporting Critical Illness Survivors fills a gap in the existing literature on the subject. Arranged in three sections, the book addresses the ways in which care in the ICU can impact life afterwards and provides a framework for the recovery process. The early chapters feature personal stories from patients describing their life-threatening illness, journey to recovery, and the clinicians who helped them along the way. In the following chapters, clinicians, physicians, nurses, and patients' family members share their unique perspectives on the recovery process. Each chapter includes a specific section dedicated to tips for clinicians. • Includes key concepts of care across the arc of the ICU patient encounter • Evidence-based interventions are presented and summarized in a practical stepwise approach • Features accounts from patients, clinicians, physicians, nurses, and others involved in the care and recovery process

Handbook of ICU Therapy provides rapid access to important information on the treatment of the critically ill patient. It comprises a series of 'cutting edge' reviews of the most advanced treatment concepts available in the modern ICU. Whilst assuming a basic knowledge of underlying conditions, it nonetheless outlines key physiological principles where necessary, and critically reviews current literature and best practice. The heart of the book is aimed at providing key practical information on treatment techniques to the busy clinician in an easily accessible style. In addition to conventional drug therapy, ventilator, fluid and physical therapies are also discussed in detail. All of the authors are directly involved in ICU research and practice and are familiar with all of the latest developments in this fast-moving field of medicine.