Biomaterial Database

Psychological hazards of the intensive care unit. Nursing care aspects. 1968

D S Kornfeld, and T Maxwell, and D Momrow

Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York, New York, USA.

The intensive care unit provides a variety of psychiatric complications. Their physiologic concomitants can endanger life. The special environment of these units can be quite stressful to patients and staff. Patients in the open-heart recovery room have a high incidence of delirium thought to be related to the sleep deprivation and sensory monotony of these rooms. Suggestions are made to improve rooming and nursing procedures to reduce these hazards. A preoperative orientation will also help to reduce anxiety postoperatively. The coronary care unit has similar problems. Nurses must learn to reduce the anxiety produced by frequent emergencies and deaths. The nursing staffs in these units have special problems produced by the unique responsibilities they must assume there. The charge nurse and medical staff must make special provision to reduce tension and maintain morale.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007362	Intensive Care Units	Hospital units providing continuous surveillance and care to acutely ill patients.	ICU Intensive Care Units,Intensive Care Unit,Unit, Intensive Care
D011183	Postoperative Complications	Pathologic processes that affect patients after a surgical procedure. They may or may not be related to the disease for which the surgery was done, and they may or may not be direct results of the surgery.	Complication, Postoperative,Complications, Postoperative,Postoperative Complication
D002300	Cardiac Care Facilities	Institutions specializing in the care of patients with heart disorders.	Cardiac Care Facility,Facilities, Cardiac Care,Facility, Cardiac Care
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001523	Mental Disorders	Psychiatric illness or diseases manifested by breakdowns in the adaptational process expressed primarily as abnormalities of thought, feeling, and behavior producing either distress or impairment of function.	Mental Illness,Psychiatric Diseases,Psychiatric Disorders,Psychiatric Illness,Behavior Disorders,Diagnosis, Psychiatric,Mental Disorders, Severe,Psychiatric Diagnosis,Illness, Mental,Mental Disorder,Mental Disorder, Severe,Mental Illnesses,Psychiatric Disease,Psychiatric Disorder,Psychiatric Illnesses,Severe Mental Disorder,Severe Mental Disorders
D016528	Postanesthesia Nursing	The specialty or practice of nursing in the care of patients in the recovery room following surgery and/or anesthesia.	Post-Anesthesia Nursing,Post-Surgical Nursing,Recovery Room Nursing,Nursing, Post-Anesthesia,Nursing, Post-Surgical,Nursing, Postanesthesia,Nursing, Recovery Room,Nursing, Post Anesthesia,Nursing, Post Surgical,Post Anesthesia Nursing,Post Surgical Nursing
D016638	Critical Illness	A disease or state in which death is possible or imminent.	Critically Ill,Critical Illnesses,Illness, Critical,Illnesses, Critical
D019555	Physician-Nurse Relations	The reciprocal interaction of physicians and nurses.	Nurse-Physician Relations,Physician Nurse Relationship,Nurse Physician Relations,Nurse Relationship, Physician,Nurse Relationships, Physician,Nurse-Physician Relation,Physician Nurse Relations,Physician Nurse Relationships,Physician-Nurse Relation,Relation, Nurse-Physician,Relation, Physician-Nurse,Relations, Nurse-Physician,Relations, Physician-Nurse,Relationship, Physician Nurse,Relationships, Physician Nurse