Papers by Dana DiVirgilio
American Journal of Critical Care
Information about the contributions of acute care nurse practitioners to medical management teams... more Information about the contributions of acute care nurse practitioners to medical management teams in critical care settings is limited. To examine contributions of acute care nurse practitioners to medical management of critically ill patients from the perspectives of 3 disciplines: medicine, respiratory care, and nursing. Attending physicians, respiratory therapists, and nurses in 2 intensive care units were asked to list 3 advantages and 3 disadvantages of collaborative care provided by acute care nurse practitioners. Qualitative methods (coding/constant comparative analysis) were used to identify common themes and subthemes. Overall response rate was 35% (from 69% for attending physicians to 26% for nurses). Responses were grouped into 4 main themes: accessibility, competence/knowledge, care coordination/communication, and system issues. Acute care nurse practitioners were valued for their accessibility, expertise in routine daily management of patients, and ability to meet patie...
Research in Nursing & Health, 2009
Behavioral observation is a fundamental component of nursing practice and a primary source of cli... more Behavioral observation is a fundamental component of nursing practice and a primary source of clinical research data. The use of video technology in behavioral research offers important advantages to nurse scientists in assessing complex behaviors and relationships between behaviors. The appeal of using this method should be balanced, however, by an informed approach to reliability issues. In this paper, we focus on factors that influence reliability, such as the use of sensitizing sessions to minimize participant reactivity and the importance of training protocols for video coders. In addition, we discuss data quality, the selection and use of observational tools, calculating reliability coefficients, and coding considerations for special populations based on our collective experiences across three different populations and settings.
Heart & Lung: The Journal of Acute and Critical Care, 2011
OBJECTIVE-To describe patterns of bath care for patients who are weaning from prolonged mechanica... more OBJECTIVE-To describe patterns of bath care for patients who are weaning from prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV) and to explore the association between bathing and weaning trial duration.
Heart & Lung: The Journal of Acute and Critical Care, 2010
BACKGROUND-Bathing is a fundamental nursing care activity performed for or with the selfassistanc... more BACKGROUND-Bathing is a fundamental nursing care activity performed for or with the selfassistance of critically ill patients. Few studies address caregiver and/or patient-family perspectives about bathing activity during weaning from prolonged mechanical ventilation.
American journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, 2004
To describe the communication ability, methods, and content among nonspeaking nonsurviving patien... more To describe the communication ability, methods, and content among nonspeaking nonsurviving patients treated with mechanical ventilation in an intensive care unit. Fifty patients who received mechanical ventilation and died during hospitalization were randomly selected from all adult patients (N = 396) treated in 8 ICUs in a tertiary medical center during a 12-month period. Clinicians' notes, use of physical restraints, and medication records were reviewed retrospectively. Data on communication method, use of sedation/analgesia (within 4 hours of communication event), and use of physical restraints were recorded on an investigator-developed communication event record for the first 10 communication episodes documented in each patient's record (n = 275). Message content and method were recorded for every documented communication episode (n = 694), resulting in a total of 812 content and 771 method data codes. Most charts (72%) had documentation of communication by patients at s...
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Papers by Dana DiVirgilio