What evidence is published on timing and appropriateness of education for patients in the intensive care unit?

Results below are from a search of PubMed and CINAHL for these concepts:

  • patient education
  • intensive care
  • English language limit
  • time/timing

PubMed:  “Patient Education as Topic”[MAJR] AND “intensive care”[mesh] AND english[lang]

CINAHL:  (MH “Intensive Care Units”) AND (MM “Patient Education+”) AND ( (time OR timing) )   This search focuses on papers that discuss some aspect of timing as it relates to patient education.  Removing the (time OR timing) part of the search will retrieve some additional papers discussing aspects, such as education for transition from ICU to general unit.

The PubMed search results are more general.  The references below discuss general aspects of patient education in the ICU.  Other references in the search results discuss patient education in specific situations, such as with patients on ventilators:

Häggström M, Asplund K, Kristiansen L.  How can nurses facilitate patient’s transitions from intensive care?: a grounded theory of nursing.  Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2012 Aug;28(4):224-33

Scott A.  Managing anxiety in ICU patients: the role of pre-operative information provision.   Nursing in Critical Care (NURS CRIT CARE), 2004 Mar-Apr; 9 (2): 72-9.

Clark BJ, Moss M. Secondary prevention in the intensive care unit: does intensive care unit admission represent a “teachable moment?”. Crit Care Med. 2011 Jun;39(6):1500-6.

What is the effectiveness of falls prevention programs?

Bottom line:  In hospitals, multifaceted interventions may be associated with reduced incidence of falls, but evidence in this Cochrane review was inconclusive.  In care facilities, vitamin D supplementation is effective; exercise may be effective but studies have conflicting results; and multifaceted prevention programs may be beneficial but results are inconclusive.  In subacute hospitals, exercise is associated with a reduction in falls.

Details: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012 Dec 12;12:CD005465. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD005465.pub3. Interventions for preventing falls in older people in care facilities and hospitals. Cameron ID, et al.

Systematic review of 60 randomized controlled trials, N=60,345 (17 in hospitals  29,972 participants.)  Beginning on page 107, the review presents analysis of evidence in the following intervention categories:  vitamin D, exercise, medication review by pharmacist, environmental interventions, social interventions, other single interventions, multiple interventions, and multifactorial intervention programs.  Analysis of data pertaining to hospitals begins at Analysis 12.1 (p. 132.)

Updated 3/1/13