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BACKGROUND: Quantification of patient effort during spontaneous breathing is important to tailor ventilatory assistance. Because a correlation between inspiratory muscle pressure (P mus ) and electrical activity of the diaphragm (EA di ) has been described, we aimed to assess the reliability of surface electromyography (EMG) of the respiratory muscles for monitoring diaphragm electrical activity and subject effort during assisted ventilation. METHODS: At a general ICU of a single university-affiliated hospital, we enrolled subjects who were intubated and on pressure support ventilation (PSV) and were on mechanical ventilation for > 48 h. The subjects were studied at 3 levels of pressure support. Airway flow and pressure; esophageal pressure; EA di ; and surface EMG of the diaphragm (surface EA di ), intercostal, and sternocleidomastoid muscles were recorded. Respiratory cycles were sampled for off-line analysis. The P mus /EA di index (PEI) was calculated by relying on EA di and surface EA di (surface PEI) from an airway pressure drop during end-expiratory occlusions performed every minute. RESULTS: surface EA di well correlated with EA di and P mus , in particular, after averaging breaths into deciles (R ‫؍‬ 0.92 and R ‫؍‬ 0.84). When surface PEI was used with surface EA di , it provided a reliable estimation of P mus (R ‫؍‬ 0.94 in comparison with measured P mus ). CONCLUSIONS: During assisted mechanical ventilation, EA di can be reliably monitored by both EA di and surface EMG. The measurement of P mus based on the calibration of EA di was also feasible by the use of surface EMG. Key words: mechanical ventilation; pressuresupport ventilation; electrical activity of the diaphragm; surface electromyography; esophageal pressure.

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Background: Moral distress is a neglected issue in most palliative education programmes, and research has largely focused on this phenomenon as an occupational problem for nursing staff. Research question: The primary outcome of this study was to explore the causes of morally distressing events, feelings experienced by nurses and coping strategies utilised by a nursing population at an Italian teaching hospital. A secondary outcome of this qualitative study was to analyse whether palliative care or end-of-life care education may reduce morally distressing events. Research design: A hermeneutic-phenomenological qualitative study was performed. Participants and research context: Participants were recruited through snowball sampling. The interviews were conducted and recorded by one interviewer and transcribed verbatim. Ethical considerations: Ethical approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Hospital Board. Findings: Six main themes emerged from the interview analyses: (1) the causes of moral distress; (2) feelings and emotions experienced during morally distressing events; (3) factors that affect the experience of moral distress; (4) strategies for coping with moral distress; (5) recovering from morally distressing events; and (6) end-of-life accompaniment. Varying opinions regarding the usefulness of palliative care education existed. Some nurses stated that participation in end-of-life courses did not help them cope with morally distressing events in the ward, and they believe that existing courses should be strengthened and better structured. Discussion: In this study, moral distress was often associated with poor communication or a lack of communication between healthcare professionals and the patients and/or their relatives and with the inability to satisfy the patients’ last requests. According to our findings, the concept of ‘good’ end-of-life accompaniment was extremely important to our sample for the prevention of morally distressing events. Conclusion: Nurses who work in the onco-haematological setting frequently experience moral distress. Determining the causes of moral distress at early stages is of paramount importance for finding a solution.