Horizontal Hostility: A Threat to Patient Safety
JONA's Healthcare Law, Ethics, and Regulation, January/March 2013The purpose of this study was to survey registered nurses (RNs) at a 220-bed community hospital in the Southwest to determine the degree of perceived horizontal hostility (HH) in the workplace, and (if present) to determine the extent that HH behaviors from either RN-to-RN or physician-to-RN influenced nurse behaviors directly related to patient care.
Ethics in Critical Care: Principled Moral Outrage: An Antidote to Moral Distress?
AACN Advanced Critical Care, March 2013Critical care clinicians commonly find themselves in situations that challenge their integrity as individuals and as professionals. This column explores the contours of moral outrage, offers a definition of principled moral outrage, and suggests strategies for working more skillfully with the inevitable challenges to integrity that occur in the critical care environment.
Preventing Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Through Oral Care, Product Selection, and Application Method: A Literature Review
AACN Advanced Critical Care, March 2013This literature review explores the most effective infection-control oral hygiene practices to reduce the incidence of ventilator-associated pneumonia in patients being treated with mechanical ventilation in the intensive care setting.
Gastroesophageal Reflux in Critically Ill Patients
Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, April 2013Critical care nurses and clinical nurse specialists can identify patients at highest risk for gastroesophageal reflux (GER) by utilizing the patient's history, reviewing the medications, and assessing the current status to provide interventions to reduce the risk of GER and its sequelae of aspiration pneumonia. This article reviews the physiology of GER, risk factors, and interventions to decrease GER in the critically ill patient.
Red Flags: The ABCs of Acute PE
Nursing Made Incredibly Easy!, April 2013Acute PE affects many patients each year and is the primary cause of preventable hospital deaths in the United States. As direct care nurses, we play a crucial role in helping to prevent acute PE by educating our patients and ensuring they're receiving appropriate VTE prophylaxis.