When I practice as a critical care nurse practitioner, I am constantly amazed at how new resources and technology contribute to the evolution of our specialty. Nurses who work in critical care-like you and me-are on the front lines of this evolution.
To chart where these continued advancements may take us, it's important to review critical care nursing from its infancy. When Florence Nightingale traveled to Turkey in 1854 to care for soldiers wounded in the Crimean War, she realized that the basic premises of infection prevention, hydration, nutrition, and separation of surgical and medical patients were paramount to improving patient outcomes.1,2
When the nursing shortage occurred after World War II, we grouped postoperative patients in recovery rooms to again better manage care and outcomes; recovery rooms sprang up in nearly every hospital by 1960.2
Experts soon realized the clinical gains by caring for the sickest patients in one specific area of the hospital, where the nurses could provide more specialized care. Consequently, intensive care units cropped up in larger hospitals across the country and later spread to the smaller community hospitals.2
At the professional level, in 1969 nurses formed the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, and in 1970 physicians from multiple disciplines formed the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM).2,3 These organizations provide valuable leadership through their established standards of care and practice guidelines, which direct the care we provide to critically ill patients worldwide.
As I think back to when I began my career as a critical care nurse 23 years ago, I remember that we parked the crash cart outside patients' rooms in hopes of warding off lethal arrhythmias. Today, we manage acute MI care by quickly assessing and stabilizing patients before whisking them to the cath lab for percutaneous coronary intervention, all within 90 minutes of their entering the emergency department. These interventions, and many others, have saved countless patient lives.
To expand the resources available to help meet your rapid information needs, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, publisher of Nursing2006 and Nursing Management, offers this new bimonthly peer-reviewed journal filled with the most current critical care innovations based on relevant and reliable research. The editorial advisory board, comprised of critical care nursing leaders, along with the editorial team, is committed to bringing you evidence-based content to immediately enhance your nursing practice, so you can improve and optimize patient outcomes.
Our standards, practice, and care modalities continue to evolve every day. Let Nursing2006 Critical Care journal be among the resources that help you make your mark on the future of our profession.
Anne Woods RN, CRNP, APRN, BC, MSN
Clinical Director of Journals, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Adjunct Faculty, Immaculata University, Immaculata, Pa.
Per diem Nurse Practitioner, Critical Care Chester County Hospital, West Chester, Pa. [email protected]
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