Nursing Care and Clinical Management in the Post-pandemic Era

Dear Colleagues, 

The intensive care unit is a dynamic and heterogeneous environment that requires nurses to balance many competing tasks and responsibilities. A rapid acceleration in levels of responsibility for intensive care unit nurses during the pandemic was observed, because of the expansion of their professional role, resulting in a significant increase in their regular workload with a significantly higher number of patients per nurse and a significantly higher nursing activity score per nurse. After the pandemic peaks, delivering advanced treatments outside the ICU may represent a new feasible strategy to manage patients after ICU discharge, especially those with care limitations. A follow-up visit, after ICU discharge, from a member of the ICU staff could be recommended in this new scenario. ICU survivors, discharged after a long stay and prolonged time of mechanical ventilation require specialized care to minimize Post Intensive Care Syndrome. Nurses, in every kind of hospital setting (ICU, HDU, general wards), are responsible for managing patients, aiming for health progress while minimizing the risk of hospital-acquired complications, but also for preventing the further spread of disease.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) focuses on the current state of knowledge on nursing care and clinical management in critically ill patients, before, during, and after ICU admission. Papers dealing with new approaches to the delivery of nursing care and management are also welcome. 

Here are some examples of topics that could be addressed in this Special Issue:

• Ultrasound-guided vascular access in critical illness;
• Set up of non-invasive ventilation;
• Incidence of pressure injury after the COVID-19 era;
• Nursing of ECMO patients;
• Vascular access assessment in the ICU;
• ICU survivor follow-up clinics;
• Humanizing Critical Care for Patients and Families;
• Nursing workload inside and outside the ICU;
• Nursing management of ARDS patients after the COVID-19 era.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Nursing Reports.

Dr. Emanuele Rezoagli
Dr. Alberto Lucchini
Dr. Stefano Elli
Guest Editors

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• vascular access
• non Invasive ventilation
• nursing workload
• follow-up
• ECMO
• ultrasound-guided ICU diary
• prone position
• pressure injury
• early mobilization in ICU