Withholding or withdrawal of care is frequently practiced in the
PICU. The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) in the UK states that there are five circumstances in which this may be appropriate:[6]
From January 2014 until the end of 2016, a total of 262 patients underwent surgery for CHD and were admitted to the
PICU. Five patients were excluded from the study because they were older than 14 years.
From the total 2010 admissions in SUS hospitals (n=543,720), hospitalizations with ICU daily rates (n=14,965) were selected, followed by those that occurred in
PICUs (n=1,915).
The
PICU at the Red Cross War Memorial Children's Hospital (RCWMCH) in Cape Town, SA, serves a diverse population, with most patients coming from extremely impoverished circumstances.
A prospective, cohort study was conducted in the
PICU of the Department of Paediatrics, Government Medical College, Kozhikode during the period of January 2014 to June 2015.
While it is accepted that length of stay (LOS) may reflect severity of illness and
PICU quality and performance, there is no uniform definition of what constitutes long
PICU stay.
[10] In the era before highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), HIV-infected children with co-infections such as Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) had worse outcomes than other patients admitted to
PICU and were therefore not routinely ventilated.
There, children were treated with continuous albuterol in the
PICU only.
PICU is an essential component of children hospitals as it constitutes about 8-10% of all children hospital's beds.3 ICUs consume a lot of resources and are expensive.
This study was designed to audit and compare the compliance and completion levels of two
PICU nursing care management checklists, a trial document (form A) which had been in place for many years and a newly introduced form (form B) which was introduced in late January, 2010.
Thirteen
PICUs returned all three survey components.