Heat retention head wrap for rewarming infants undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass surgery

A Vision for Excellence by Design

Generating evidence for care improvement has characterized my program of research spanning 20 years. Six domains are highlighted to advance the science and practice of critical care nursing in today's complex health care systems. Employee well-being and taking care of team members are key priorities for successful leaders. Understanding that patient and staff outcomes are inextricably linked strengthens the need for care environments to be healing and holistic for staff and patients. The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses' Healthy Work Environment framework empowers staff and optimizes the experience for patients, their families, and care teams. Appropriate staffing, guided by contemporary acuity measurement, takes into account the cognitive workload and complexity of nursing. Committing to a culture of certification and ensuring staffing models with appropriately educated and experienced nursing staff will remain important. In the past decade, we have established the impact of these specific nursing characteristics on improved patient outcomes. Understanding the attributes of empathic and empowered teams is requisite for authentic leadership. Interventions to mitigate moral distress are necessary to foster moral resilience among critical care nurses. The challenge for the future will be to support organizational health through the coexistence of highly reliable processes and clinical innovation. Excellence is achieved when systems are designed to support professional practice and clinical teams and environments.

Excellence by Design: The Patricia A. Hickey Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Nursing

This award reflects the high-impact contributions of pediatric critical care nurses that have helped to shape the field. Lessons from an ongoing career in nursing leadership are shared by Dr Patricia Hickey. Four themes are highlighted which include (1) our role models/mentors, (2) our profession and its impact, (3) our teams and environments of excellence, and (4) our bright future. Program and practice excellence does not just happen. It requires strategic thinking, deliberative processes, risk-taking and guts to create and sustain. A bright future is forecasted with stellar contributions of professional nurses and interprofessional cardiac critical care teams.

Intraoperative temperature regulation in children using a liquid-warming garment

PURPOSE

Children undergoing operative intervention while induced under general anesthesia are at risk for experiencing a significant decrease in core body temperature that can lead to adverse systemic effects. Given that the head contributes an estimated 18% of a child's body surface area, we theorized that a liquid-warming garment applied to the head could control a pediatric patient's core body temperature during surgical procedures.

METHODS

Patients undergoing elective, non-cranial, general surgical procedures were enrolled in the study. A head garment with an embedded network of tubing was placed on the patient. The garment connected to a computer-controlled water bath that managed the temperature of the water in the tubing through a feedback mechanism.

RESULTS

Ten patients with ages ranging from 1 day to 3 years (mean age 10.5 months) were enrolled in this study. The average procedure length was 82.5 min. The mean core body temperature throughout the procedure for all-comers was 36.5 ± 0.9 °C with an overall mean difference in maximum and minimum temperatures of 1.32 ± 1.1 °C.

CONCLUSION

A liquid-warming garment applied to the head of pediatric surgical patients is an innovative and relatively low-cost means to regulate and to maintain the ideal core body temperature of patients undergoing surgical procedures.