Background The inability to speak during critical illness is a source of distress for patients, yet nurse-patient communication in the intensive care unit has not been systematically studied or measured. Objectives To describe communication interactions, methods, and assistive techniques between nurses and nonspeaking critically ill patients in the intensive care unit. Methods Descriptive observational study of the nonintervention/usual care cohort from a larger clinical trial of nurse-patient communication in a medical and a cardiothoracic surgical intensive care unit. Videorecorded interactions between 10 randomly selected nurses (5 per unit) and a convenience sample of 30 critically ill adults (15 per unit) who were awake, responsive, and unable to speak because of respiratory tract intubation were rated for frequency, success, quality, communication methods, and assistive communication techniques. Patients self-rated ease of communication. Results Nurses initiated most (86.2%) of the communication exchanges. Mean rate of completed communication exchange was 2.62 exchanges per minute. The most common positive nurse act was making eye contact with the patient. Although communication exchanges were generally (>70%) successful, more than one-third (37.7%) of communications about pain were unsuccessful. Patients rated 40% of the communication sessions with nurses as somewhat difficult to extremely difficult. Assistive communication strategies were uncommon, with little to no use of assistive communication materials (eg, writing supplies, alphabet or word boards). Conclusions Study results highlight specific areas for improvement in communication between nurses and nonspeaking patients in the intensive care unit, particularly in communication about pain and in the use of assistive communication strategies and communication materials.

Rationale: Relationships between chronic health conditions and acute infections remain poorly understood. Preclinical studies suggest crosstalk between nervous and immune systems. Objectives: To determine bidirectional relationships between cognition and pneumonia. Methods: We conducted longitudinal analyses of a population-based cohort over 10 years. We determined whether changes in cognition increase risk of pneumonia hospitalization by trajectory analyses and joint modeling. We then determined whether pneumonia hospitalization increased risk of subsequent dementia using a Cox model with pneumonia as a time-varying covariate. Measurements and Main Results: Of the 5,888 participants, 639 (10.9%) were hospitalized with pneumonia at least once. Most participants had normal cognition before pneumonia. Three cognition trajectories were identified: no, minimal, and severe rapid decline. A greater proportion of participants hospitalized with pneumonia were on trajectories of minimal or severe decline before occurrence of pneumonia compared with those never hospitalized with pneumonia (proportion with no, minimal, and severe decline were 67.1%, 22.8%, and 10.0% vs. 76.0%, 19.3%, and 4.6% for participants with and without pneumonia, respectively; P , 0.001). Small subclinical changes in cognition increased risk of pneumonia, even in those with normal cognition and physical function before pneumonia (b ¼ 20.02; P , 0.001). Participants with pneumonia were subsequently at an increased risk of dementia (hazard ratio, 2.24 [95% confidence interval, 1.62-3.11]; P ¼ 0.01). Associations were independent of demographics, health behaviors, other chronic conditions, and physical function. Bidirectional relationship did not vary based on severity of disease, and similar associations were noted for those with severe sepsis and other infections. Conclusions: A bidirectional relationship exists between pneumonia and cognition and may explain how a single episode of infection in well-appearing older individuals accelerates decline in chronic health conditions and loss of functional independence. Keywords: pneumonia; dementia; cognitive functionApproximately half of all adults have a chronic health condition and these conditions are a leading cause of disability and death. A single episode of infection may also lead to a cascade of secondary illnesses, disability, and death (1-3). However, the relationship between chronic health conditions and infection remains poorly understood, particularly in community-dwelling individuals without major impairments in cognition or physical function.We examined the relationship between pneumonia and cognition because pneumonia and dementia are common and In this study, we demonstrate how changes in cognition over time, even small subclinical changes, are associated with an increased risk of pneumonia and within the same cohort we demonstrate that once participants develop pneumonia, they have an accelerated course to dementia. Similar patterns were seen in those with severe sepsis and when stratifie...

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.

Objective To test the impact of two levels of intervention on communication frequency, quality, success, and ease between nurses and intubated intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Design Quasi-experimental, 3-phase sequential cohort study: (1) usual care, (2) basic communication skills training (BCST) for nurses, (3) additional training in augmentative and alternative communication devices and speech language pathologist consultation (AAC + SLP). Trained observers rated four 3-min video-recordings for each nurseepatient dyad for communication frequency, quality and success. Patients self-rated communication ease. Setting Two ICUs in a university-affiliated medical center. Participants 89 intubated patients awake, responsive and unable to speak and 30 ICU nurses. Main results Communication frequency (mean number of communication acts within a communication exchange) and positive nurse communication behaviors increased significantly in one ICU only. Percentage of successful communication exchanges about pain were greater for the two intervention groups than the usual care/control group across both ICUs (p = .03) with more successful sessions about pain and other symptoms in the AAC + SLP group (p = .07). Patients in the AAC SLP intervention group used significantly more AAC methods (p = .002) and rated communication at high difficulty less often (p < .01). Conclusions This study provides support for the feasibility, utility and efficacy of a multi-level communication skills training, materials and SLP consultation intervention in the ICU.

Objectives Severe infections, often requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission, have been associated with persistent cognitive dysfunction. Less severe infections are more common and whether they are associated with an increased risk of dementia is unclear. We determined the association of pneumonia hospitalization with risk of dementia in well-functioning older adults. Design Secondary analysis of a randomized multicenter trial to determine the effect of Gingko biloba on incident dementia. Setting and Subjects Community volunteers (n=3069) with a median follow-up of 6.1 years. Measurement and Main Results We identified pneumonia hospitalizations using ICD-9CM codes and validated them in a subset. Less than 3% of pneumonia cases necessitated ICU admission, mechanical ventilation or vasopressor support. Dementia was adjudicated based on neuropsychological evaluation, neurological exam, and magnetic resonance imaging. Two hundred twenty one participants (7.2%) incurred at least one hospitalization with pneumonia (mean time to pneumonia=3.5 years). Of these, 38 (17%) developed dementia after pneumonia with half of these cases occurring 2 years after the pneumonia hospitalization. Hospitalization with pneumonia was associated with increased risk of time to dementia diagnosis (unadjusted hazard ratio [HR] = 2.3, CI: 1.6–3.2, p<0.0001). The association remained significant when adjusted for age, sex, race, study site, education, and baseline Mini-Mental Status Exam (HR=1.9, CI 1.4–2.8, p<.0001). Results were unchanged when additionally adjusted for smoking, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and pre-infection functional status. Results were similar using propensity analysis where participants with pneumonia were matched to those without pneumonia based on age, probability of developing pneumonia, and similar trajectories of cognitive and physical function prior to pneumonia (adjusted incidence rates: 91.7 vs. 65 cases per 1,000 person-years, adjusted incidence rate ratio=1.6, CI:1.06–2.7, p=0.03). Sensitivity analyses showed that the higher risk also occurred among those hospitalized with other infections. Conclusion Hospitalization with pneumonia is associated with increased risk of dementia.