Betsy Todd, MPH, RN, Nurse Epidemiologist and Clinical Editor for American Journal of Nursing answers questions related to COVID-19 transmission. These questions were submitted by attendees of the webcast, Calming the COVID-19 Storm: Delivering Effective Clinical and Nursing Care, which took place on May 7, 2020. This podcast was recorded on May 18, 2020. For the most up to date information, please visit our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource page, where you’ll find links to the on-demand webcast (earn 1 free contact hour!), CDC and WHO, plus free access to our point-of-care tools and more.

This podcast is an interview with Robin Haskell, an acute care nurse practitioner for Penn Medicine, Chester County Hospital. Robin reviews the background of the new Surviving Sepsis Campaign: Guidelines on the Management of Critically Ill Adults with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19),  and discusses each element of the recommendations and suggestions, including infection control, laboratory diagnosis and specimens, hemodynamic support, ventilatory support, and COVID-19 therapy. Highlights of how these guidelines differ from the guidelines for sepsis management and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are also presented.

*Note: this podcast was recorded on March 27, 2020. For the most up to date information, please visit our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource page, where you’ll find links to the CDC and WHO, plus free access to our point-of-care tools and more.

This podcast is an interview with Dr. Anne Dabrow Woods, Chief Nurse of Wolters Kluwer Health Learning, Research & Practice, adjunct faculty for Drexel University, and a critical care nurse practitioner for Penn Medicine, Chester County Hospital. Our discussion covers topics such as personal protective equipment (PPE) – both availability of resources and the time necessary to put on full gear to protect ourselves, decisions on supportive care when faced with ventilator shortages, and the lack of social support for patients when visitors are restricted. Dr. Woods closes with inspirational words on resiliency and recovery when this crisis is over.

*Note: this podcast was recorded on March 26, 2020. For the most up to date information, please visit our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource page, where you’ll find links to the CDC and WHO, plus free access to our point-of-care tools and more.

This podcast is an interview with Dr. Anne Dabrow Woods, Chief Nurse of Wolters Kluwer Health Learning, Research & Practice, adjunct faculty for Drexel University, and a critical care nurse practitioner for Penn Medicine, Chester County Hospital. The discussion is around COVID-19 and the resulting surge of patients overwhelming the healthcare system. In some areas, hospitals have increased their bed capacity to accommodate more patients, which brings up the question – who will care for these patients? Dr. Woods shares specific recommendations for strategies to increase staff quickly, including alternative staffing and onboarding models.

*Note: this podcast was recorded on March 26, 2020. For the most up to date information, please visit our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource page, where you’ll find links to the CDC and WHO, plus free access to our point-of-care tools and more.

During the past few days, there’s been a significant increase in COVID-19 cases globally. Because it’s a new virus, people have little or no immunity to it, so it continues to spread. In this interview with Collette Hendler, RN, MS, MA, CIC, Editor-in-Chief for Lippincott Solutions and Certified Infection Preventionist, we discuss who is at the highest risk for severe illness and complications. Also, many in healthcare and the public are becoming familiar with the phrase, “flatten the curve.” We discuss what this phrase means and strategies to best educate patients and the public.

*Note: this podcast was recorded on March 19, 2020. For the most up to date information, please visit our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource page, where you’ll find links to the CDC and WHO, plus free access to our point-of-care tools and more.

Nurses are on the frontlines caring for patients with possible and confirmed cases of coronavirus, or COVID-19. Listen to this interview with Betsy Todd, MPH, RN, Nurse Epidemiologist and Clinical Editor for American Journal of Nursing, and Lisa Bonsall, Clinical Editor for Lippincott NursingCenter, to learn important facts that nurses need to know, specifically when it comes to infection control and prevention. They review the basics about categories of isolation precautions, discuss current recommendations, and review teaching points for the public. Details of the virus and its transmission are changing quickly, so please remember to stay up to date on recommendations and rely on reputable sources – identified during this podcast – for information.

*Note: this podcast was recorded on March 6, 2020. For the most up to date information, please visit our Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resource page, where you’ll find links to the CDC and WHO, plus free access to our point-of-care tools and more.

One of the most important points to remember about sepsis is that it should be treated as a life-threatening medical emergency. In this podcast, Megan Giovanelli Doble, MSN, CRNP, FNP-C, AGACNP-C reviews the basics of sepsis and discusses the latest recommendations on managing patients with sepsis at the bedside.

References:
Levy, M.M., Evans, L.E., & Rhodes, A. (2018). The Surviving Sepsis Campaign Bundle: 2018
Update. Critical Care Medicine, 46(6), 997-1000. doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000003119
 
Rhodes, A., Evans, L., Alhazzani, W., Levy, M., Antonelli, M., Ferrer, R., . . . Dellinger, R. (2017). Surviving
Sepsis Campaign: International Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock 2016. Critical Care Medicine, 486-452. doi:10.1097/CCM.0000000000002255
 
Singer, M., Deutschman, C.S., Seymour, C.,…Angus, D.C. (2016). The Third International Consensus
Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis-3). JAMA, 315(8), 801-810. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.0287

For more sepsis resources, visit Focus On: Sepsis. 

In healthy patients, most fluids are confined in three spaces of the body: the intravascular space (in the blood vessels), the intracellular space (in the cells), or the interstitial spaces. The interstitial spaces are the small spaces between cells that are not contained within blood vessels. In normal situations, fluid moves between all three spaces to maintain fluid balance. Third-spacing occurs when too much fluid moves from the intravascular space into the interstitial or “third” space.

Reference:
Holcomb, S. (2009). Topics in Progressive Care: Third-Spacing: When Body Fluids Shifts. Nursing in Critical Care, 4(2). doi: 10.1097/01.NURSE.0000325345.22694.44

In this interview, Myrna Schnur, MSN, RN and Megan Doble, MSN, CRNP, FNP-C, AGACNP-C discuss the history of trendelenburg positioning, their experiences, and what the current research recommends. 

Read more in Why Don't We Use Trendelenburg?