Sedation And Sleep In Critical Care An Update An Issue Of Critical Care Nursing Clinics

Sedation is a necessary component of care for critically ill and injured individuals. Sedatives assist in coping with mechanical ventilation and other invasive devices, and help patients tolerate procedures and noxious stimuli in the intensive care unit. Sedatives are also useful in the control of agitation and delirium. In addition to fundamental humane reasons, calming patients with sedatives provides physiologic benefits, such as reducing oxygen consumption expended during restlessness, and prevents dislodgement of life-preserving tubes and catheters. When administering sedatives to manage critically ill patients, clinicians must be cognizant of the many complex issues surrounding their use. This issue, edited by Consulting Editor, Dr. Jan Foster, provides current updates in this area, including new guidelines and a focus on delirium.

Neuromonitoring is a broad term that essentially accounts for the essence of neuroscience nursing. Nurses working with critically ill, neurologically impaired patients should have a foundation in not only in invasive neuromonitoring, but the more subtle aspects of care. Nurses must understand that they are the most important tool in monitoring patients and interpreting the data. This issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics will bring together the critical aspects of neuromonitoring in the intensive care units that can be used as a resource for nurses. Some articles included are devoted to Temperature Targeted Management; Refractory Intracranial Pressure Management; Blood pressure monitoring controversies; Invasive Neuromonitoring; Neuroradiology Review; Nursing Monitoring of Critically Ill Neurological Patients; Case Studies in EEG monitoring; and Neuromonitoring in the Operating Room.

Critical care units are high-risk areas which contribute to increased health care costs and increased patient morbidity and mortality. Patients in critical care units are commonly confronted with existing and the potential to develop infections. Critical care practitioners play a crucial role as initial providers to critically ill patients with infections through the delivery of timely and appropriate therapies aimed to prevent and treat patient infections. The responsibility of critical care practitioners include prudent delivery of care to treat current infections as well as ensuring the delivery of care does not increase the development of new infections. Aggressive infection control measures are needed to reduce infections in critical care settings. Dissemination of scholarly work on the topic of infection in critically ill patients can play a role in improving patient outcomes. The information provided on infections in this issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics promotes the dissemination of current literature on a series of timely and relevant infection topics in critical care environments.

A cardiac dysrhythmia is a disturbance in the cardiac rhythm which can be normal (e.g., sinus arrhythmia) or instantly lethal (e.g., sustained ventricular tachycardia). This issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America will provide state of the art diagnostic and treatment information for cardiac dysrhythmias as well as addressing how to achieve the most accurate diagnostic approach to interpreting an electrocardiogram, which is omnipresent in critical care and of critical importance in diagnosing arrhythmias. Articles in this issue are devoted to: The Normal Cardiac Conduction System; The Normal Electrocardiogram: Resting 12-lead and Continuous Cardiac Rhythm Strips; Premature Beats; Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia, Including the Special Type Called Wolff-Parkinson-White; Atrial Fibrillation, The Most Common Type of Supraventricular Arrhythmia; Ventricular Tachycardia and Its Disorganized Counterpart, Ventricular Fibrillation; Brady-Dysrhythmias, When Heart Rate Slows Myocardial Ischemia & Infarction and their Relationship to Dysrhythmias; Pharmacologically Induced Dysrhythmias; and Implantable Cardiac Devices and their Role in Dysrhythmias Management.

Dr. Goldsworthy has created a state-of-the-art issue that emphasizes the nurse's role in mechanical ventilation. Pertinent clinical topics include the following: basics of mechanical ventilation for nurses; current modes for mechanical ventilation; best practices for managing pain, sedation, and delirium in the mechanically ventilated patient; mobilization of and optimal oxygenation for the mechanicaly ventilated patient; managing complications; and effective weaning strategies. Authors also address mechanical ventilation in both children and neonates. The current content in this issue will leave nurses with the clinical information they need to effectively manage mechanically ventilated patients.

This issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics will include articles on the following topics: overview of pulmonary critical care; Respiratory Failure; ARDS management; Sleep apnea; Cystic Fibrosis; Asthma; Pulmonary complications of immunocompromised patients; Trauma/chest injury; Pneumonia; and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis/Pulmonary Hypertension.

This issue of Sleep Medicine Clinics focuses on Novel Therapies for Sleep-Disorderd Breathing. Article topics include: The problems and pitfalls with current approaches to managing sleep disordered breathing; New approaches to diagnosing sleep disordered breathing; Monitoring progress and adherence with PAP therapy for OSA; The future of dental approaches for the treatment of OSA; Pharmacologic approaches for the treatment of OSA; Novel therapies for the treatment of central sleep apnea; Advances and new approaches to managing sleep disordered breathing related to chronic pulmonary disease; The role of big data in the management of sleep disordered breathing; Using genes and biomarkers to assess risk and identify optimal treatments for patients with sleep disordered breathing, and more!