Walking Home From The ICU Episode 86: Ventilator Management in the Awake and Walking COVID19 Unit
How is the “Awake and Walking ICU” keeping their COVID19 patients mentally and physically functional during severe COVID19? Do they face constant ventilator asynchrony and how do they deal with it? Geoff shares with us his vast experience as a respiratory therapist in walking patients on mechanical ventilation during critical illness and now COVID19. Episode
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 104: ICU Rehabilitation
When ICU-acquired weakness is not preventable, or we encounter a patient that has not received the ABCDEF bundle, how can we start the rehabilitation process? What approach can one lone clinician use for initiating recovery or preventing ICU-acquired weakness? Physiotherapist, Lucy Sutton, shares with us incredible insight into ICU rehabilitation. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton 0:01
Learn More > from Walking Home From The ICU Episode 104: ICU Rehabilitation
Sally’s Story: How Outdated ICU Protocols Are Crippling Outcomes for COVID Patients
Throughout the pandemic, it’s become increasingly obvious that the lack of evidence-based ICU protocols is having a devastating effect on ICU patient care. Over the last two years, I’ve seen countless examples of this, and it breaks my heart because most of these tragedies are totally preventable. One of the most poignant examples of this
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 94: The ICU Deathtrap
Why are prolonged sedation and immobility lethal? How do our standard practices of automatically sedating every patient on a ventilator deprive them of the chance to survive and thrive? What systemic barriers stop us from implementing evidence-based practices that save lives and drastically change outcomes? Michelle, DNP, ACNP dives deep into powerful case studies that
Learn More > from Walking Home From The ICU Episode 94: The ICU Deathtrap
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 93: The Awake and Walking COVID ICU
Why is the mortality rate for COVID ICU patients in the Awake and Walking ICU less than half of the other COVID ICUs in the same hospital system in the same community? How have sedation and mobility practices impacted rates of central lines, vasopressor use, paralysis, tracheostomies, and LTACH admissions? How has this ICU continued
Learn More > from Walking Home From The ICU Episode 93: The Awake and Walking COVID ICU
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 77: Start Where You Are
Are lung-protective strategies only implemented when patients are sedated? Is walking on the ventilator safe for the lungs? How do we transition from “sedating to keep patients safe” to “walking to keep patients safe”? Dr. Ali Fazili from the “Awake and Walking ICU” shares with us his expertise. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton 0:28 Hello, and
Learn More > from Walking Home From The ICU Episode 77: Start Where You Are
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 75: Communicate. Don’t Sedate.
When Jeff Sweat was about to be intubated, what was he told about what was to come? What information did his wife, Sunny Cannon, receive about the risks and reality of deep sedation? Was is it really like to “wake up” 3 weeks later? How have sedation, immobility, and tracheostomy impacted their family? Had they
Learn More > from Walking Home From The ICU Episode 75: Communicate. Don’t Sedate.
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 59: One Nurse Bringing Change to a Hospital System
How can one nurse make bring the change? What can happen when a team catches the vision? How can a team transition their culture from deep sedation and immobility to awake and walking? Nora tells us about igniting her team’s fire and the changes they are celebrating. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton 0:29 Hello, we’ve
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 58: Deadly Treatment for a Deadly Virus?
Louise, ACNP, has dedicated her career to preserving lives in the Awake and Walking ICU. So what was it like for her to have her own loved one die from sedation and immobility? She tells it like it is and gives us a sobering insight into both sides of the bedside during COVID19. Episode
Learn More > from Walking Home From The ICU Episode 58: Deadly Treatment for a Deadly Virus?
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 57: The Shock of Working in a “Normal ICU”
When all you’ve ever known is walking patients on ventilators, what is it like to enter a time machine and go back to sedation and immobility? What did Tara learn taking care of COVID19 patients outside of her “Awake and Walking ICU”? She shares with us her reaffirmed empowerment to change patients’ outcomes through evidence-based
Learn More > from Walking Home From The ICU Episode 57: The Shock of Working in a “Normal ICU”
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
By clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to this site's Privacy Policy. Your information is always kept safe.
