Calling Nurse Leaders: Join the Revolution!

I am grateful to Nurse Leaders for the opportunity to publish this call to action to nurse leaders to champion the revolution toward Awake and Walking ICUs. The article can be found here:

Leading the Change: How Nursing Leadership Can Champion the Revolution Toward Awake and Walking Intensive Care Units - ScienceDirect

Throughout my interactions with many hospital systems, I often find nurse leaders in various layers and levels of healthcare are concerned with:

• Decreasing healthcare costs
• Decreasing hospital-acquired complications such as falls, pressure injuries, infections, etc.
• Decreasing hospital length of stay and readmission
• Improving patient experience, satisfaction, and outcomes
• Improving nursing retention

I have observed individual committees created and assigned to work on each individual problem.

What I wish nurse leaders understood is that many of these problems share common roots.

Focusing on the " bad fruits" without addressing the ROOTS will be an endless battle.

Throughout inpatient care, expensive and burdensome hospital-acquired complications are largely caused and exacerbated by antiquated sedation, delirium, and mobility practices that are not fixed by superficial and temporary initiatives.

Failing to prevent delirium and hospital-acquired frailty results in months and years of ongoing mortality, morbidity, and costs throughout the continuum of care.

As patients become confused, combative, weak, dependent on staff for all cares in one setting, the burden of care increases in the next setting. The ongoing challenge of care for these patients leads to high risks of more complications that can send them right back to the hospital to continue the cycle.

Nurse leaders have the opportunity to revolutionize nursing culture and practices that will transform patient care and outcomes by creating an environment that proactively prevents and treats delirium and hospital-acquired frailty rather than rampantly causing it.

Nurse leaders, please join the revolution to humanize care to give patients the best chance to survive and thrive throughout the continuum of care.

Like Polly Bailey, your leadership can save lives and quality of life for innumerable patients for generations to come.

Bring the science, research, and financial numbers to fight for best practices.

Check out www.ABCDEFBundle.com for more information about the financial benefits of keeping patients awake and mobile in the ICU. Check out this article for information about this system-wide problem and the needed solution.

Leading the Change: How Nursing Leadership Can Champion the Revolution Toward Awake and Walking Intensive Care Units - ScienceDirect