Intensive Care in Australia and New Zealand

International Perspectives on the Influence of Structure and Process of Weaning From Mechanical Ventilation

“…41 Inclusion of respiratory therapists in the ICU staffing profile must be considered when comparing clinician to patient ratios for ventilator patients across countries. a Based on data from Martin et al, 17 Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, 18 Espersen et al, 32 Audit Commission, 33 Angus et al, 34 and Chapman et al 35 49,50 which extends to the management of mechanical ventilation and weaning. 51 Although variation exists across ICUs in Australia and New Zealand, in many units, nurses are responsible for manipulation of ventilator settings adjusted in response to physiological parameters and are actively engaged in the management of weaning, generally in the absence of protocols.…”

Critical care workforce*

“…Also included are quality assurance activities funded by the government health departments (17). In short, Australia and New Zealand, through this cooperative effort between the Joint Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and ANZICS, benefit not only from a combined coordinated training program but from a critical care "system" of resource allocation, training, data collection, and quality assurance.…”

Infrastructure for quality transformation: measurement and reporting in veterans administration intensive care units

“…Such projects include the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Center (ICNARC, Britain),26 the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Adult Patient Care (ANZIC) database and Critical Care Research Center27 28 and Project Impact in the US29 now folded into a private company. These programs differ from IPEC in that their reports generally include only throughput, severity of illness and risk adjusted outcomes; portions of data collection rely on manual entry, and participation is voluntary.…”