As a nurse of 22 years, Lynn had been taught that patients were comfortably sleeping while sedated in medically-induced comas. She shares the horrific realities she suffered while intubated and sedated and the months of playing “Truth or Propofol?” after discharge. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton 0:05 I recently had fascinating interactions online with nurses
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 160: Psychiatrists in the ICU
How can inpatient psychiatrists help ICU teams prevent and treat delirium? How can their expertise help ICU teams minimize sedation, prevent trauma, and treat the psychiatric needs of ICU patients? Dr. Marie Rueve shares with us the role psychiatrists can play in transforming patient care and outcomes in the ICU. Episode Transcription Kali Dayton
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Walking Home From The ICU Episode 159: Building a Dream Team
What happens when resources and staffing are dedicated to providing high touch and high compliance with the ABCDEF bundle? How does adequate staffing, interdisciplinary team dynamics, and quality protocols impact patient outcomes and financial benefits? What is the “secret sauce” of successfully weaning patients from the ventilator? Sam Nimah and Phillip Norris share with us
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What happens to the body at the cellular, neurological, pulmonary, musculoskeletal, and cardiovascular levels when it remains supine for days to weeks? What is verticalization therapy and what does current research reveal about its benefits during critical illness? Verticalization experts, Phillip Gonzalez, MOT, OTR/L, BCPR, Nikki Stephens, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, and Jenna Hightower, PT, DPT,
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 157: Sedation is Sleep-Deprivation
For decades, we have culturally passed on the myth that patients are sleeping while sedated into medically induced comas. We have assured ourselves and each other that sedation “prevents PTSD”. Research has proven that sedation makes true restorative sleep impossible and real recall of the reality of the ICU is protective against post-ICU PTSD. So
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After decades of research and effort, why is there a persistent struggle to truly practice the ABCDEF bundle? Are antiquated sedation practices because nurses are unwilling to change, or is it because they are unsupported and untrained in the risks and realities of sedation? Even when training is provided in the classroom, what do nurses
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 155: F- Family Engagement and Empowerment with Lito Rama
How do families impact patient outcomes in the ICU? What does it really mean to engage and empower families in the ICU? Have our teams truly recovered from the strict visitation restrictions from COVID? How does an ABCDEF Bundle culture influence our visitation policies? Lito Rama, RN, MBA joins us now to share with us
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 154: E- EARLY Mobility with Heidi Engel
What is EARLY mobility? Why is it so vital that the ICU community advance past passive range of motion for intubated patients? What are the main barriers that prevent us from mastering the E of the ABCDEF bundle? If we’re not doing highest level of mobility for most of our patients, are we truly practicing
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Walking Home From The ICU Episode 153: D- Assess, Prevent, and Treat Delirium with Dr. Adrian Austin
The normality of delirium in the ICU is often mistaken for benign. What does it really mean to “assess, prevent, and treat delirium”? Are we treating a positive CAM score with the same urgency as a positive tropinin? If we are automatically starting deliriogenic medications on every patient immediately upon intubation, are we truly practicing
Walking Home From The ICU Episode 152: C- Choice of Sedation and Analgesia with John Devlin, PharmD
Is the C of the ABCDEF bundle only for avoiding benzodiazepines? How do we fully practice the “C” of the bundle and how does this impact patient care and outcomes? If we are automatically starting sedation without evaluation, are we truly practicing the ABCDEF bundle? John W. Devlin, PharmD, BCCCP, MCCM, FCCP joins us in
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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