ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The architectural design of the pediatric intensive care unit may play a major role in optimizing the environment to promote patients' sleep while improving stress levels and the work experience of critical care nurses. OBJECTIVES: To examine changes in nurses' perceptions of the environment of a pediatric critical care unit for promotion of patients' sleep and the nurses' work experience after a transition from multipatient rooms to single-patient rooms. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of nurses was conducted before and after the move to a new hospital building in which all rooms in the pediatric critical care unit were single-patient rooms. RESULTS: Nurses reported that compared with multipatient rooms, single-patient private rooms were more conducive to patients sleeping well at night and promoted a more normal sleep-wake cycle (P < .001). Monitors/alarms and staff conversations were the biggest factors that adversely influenced the environment for sleep promotion in both settings. Nurses were less annoyed by noise in single-patient rooms (33%) than in multipatient rooms (79%; P < .001) and reported improved exposure to sunlight. CONCLUSIONS: Use of single-patient rooms rather than multipatient rooms improved nurses' perceptions of the pediatric intensive care unit environment for promoting patients' sleep and the nurses' own work experience.
Subject(s)
Health Facility Environment/organization & administration , Hospital Design and Construction/methods , Intensive Care Units, Pediatric/organization & administration , Nursing Staff, Hospital/psychology , Patients' Rooms/organization & administration , Adult , Attitude of Health Personnel , Clinical Alarms/adverse effects , Cross-Sectional Studies , Female , Humans , Lighting/adverse effects , Lighting/methods , Male , Middle Aged , Noise/adverse effects , Occupational Stress/epidemiology , Perception , Sleep , Workplace/psychologyABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: This pilot study was performed to determine the safety and size of effect of antibiotic cycling to reduce colonization and infection with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. DESIGN: Open, observational study. SETTING: The study was performed in a 16-bed pediatric medical-surgical intensive care unit. PATIENTS: Critically ill children requiring antibiotic therapy. INTERVENTIONS: Three antibiotic classes were systematically cycled for 3-month intervals over 18 months. Antibiotic regimens were used for all empirical therapy and continued if the bacterial isolate was susceptible. MEASUREMENTS: The primary outcome was colonization with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, determined by surveillance cultures obtained twice monthly from all patients in the unit. Rates of antibiotic-resistant, nosocomial blood stream infections, and risks of colonization over calendar time in the intensive care unit were also evaluated. MAIN RESULTS: The cycling of broad-spectrum, empirical antibiotics was safe and did not generate increased antibiotic resistance nor select for new organisms. Over the study period, the trend in prevalence of children colonized with antibiotic-resistant bacteria was from 29% to 24% (p =.41). The effect on prevalence of resistant blood stream infections was similar (p =.29). Changes in individual risks of colonization with resistant bacteria over calendar time were consistent with the ecologic effect in size and direction. CONCLUSIONS: Results of this pilot intervention suggest that cycling antibiotics may be a safe and viable strategy to minimize the emergence of antibiotic resistance in intensive care units. A definitive study will require a randomized and controlled trial of only four pediatric intensive care units over an 18-month period.
