What Clinicians Need to Know About Awakening Trials
I have to admit, I wasn’t a fan of awakening trials at first. During my first two years in an Awake and Walking ICU, we rarely initiated sedation, so the need to turn it off wasn’t a struggle for us. When sedation was necessary, we simply turned it off when we deemed it unnecessary. It
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I’ve Won an Award for Best Nursing Innovation!
I am proud to announce that I’ve won an award for the “Best Nursing Innovation” in Nurse.org’s 2025 Best of Nursing Awards. This award, which highlights the Awake and Walking ICU initiative, is a triumphant recognition of nursing innovation, and all those nurses who’ve worked tirelessly over the years to develop these protocols and advocate
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Episode 186: The ICU Revolution at Mercy San Juan Medical Center Part 5 – Respiratory Therapy
What role do respiratory therapists play in creating Awake and Walking ICUs? How did Candace Wistrich, RRT, BSRT and Nelya Kapitula, RRT, BSRT lead their respiratory therapy department to move the revolution forward? They join us now to share their team’s journey! Episode Transcription Nelya Kapitula, RRT, BSRT 0:00 Candace and Nelya, thank you so
I stumbled upon Kali’s podcast midway through my anesthesia critical care fellowship in February 2021. At our institution, I got the impression that patients in the ICU either got better on their own or had a prolonged and complicated course to LTAC or death. In her podcast, Kali explained that LTAC was rarely the outcome for patients in the Awake and Walking ICU in Salt Lake City.
Their ICU survivors hardly ever got trached, PEGed, or sent to LTAC, and literally walked out of the hospital in condition as close to their previous health as they could be. Although the concept of using no sedation on ventilated patients was completely foreign to me, it made sense based on what I had read in the literature. I devoured all of the episodes from the beginning, many of them bringing tears and regret for my ignorance, followed by inspiration and hope in later episodes. Listening to her podcast has been one of the most profound experiences in my short, eight-year career in medicine.
After discovering the no sedation, early mobility practice at the Awake and Walking ICU, my focus shifted to bringing it to my own institution. I visited Salt Lake City in March to witness it with my own eyes. Since then, I’ve been in touch closely with Kali and Louise to learn the practical approaches to sedation wean and sedation avoidance for newly intubated patients in the ICU.
Mikita Fuchita, MD
Colorado, USA
Perception Versus Reality: Debunking The Myths About Medically-Induced Comas
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