Nursing In Critical Care Journal

26/11/2025

⭐ Understanding Stigma in ICU Nursing: What This Study Reveals

This descriptive phenomenological qualitative study addresses stigma within intensive care settings and demonstrates how deeply it shapes nurses’ experiences. While the findings offer valuable insight into emotional and professional challenges, the small sample and single-country setting limit how far the conclusions can be extended.

🔗 Full article: https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70222

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

Background Stigma is a sociological concept that is important in healthcare settings because it threatens health as much as the disease itself. The consequences of stigma are profound, as those who ...

25/11/2025

🌟 When Trauma Shapes Care: Understanding What Drives Compassion Fatigue in Critical Care Nurses

Critical care nurses work in environments where traumatic exposure is routine, but the links between trauma, growth, and professional confidence are often poorly understood. This study brings these relationships into clearer view, although its cross-sectional design limits causal interpretation.

Key Insight: Professional self-efficacy and post-traumatic growth appear to act as protective mechanisms, although the extent to which they mitigate long-term psychological burden requires further investigation.

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70213

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

Background Critical care nurses (CCNs) are in the frontline of providing quality care to critically ill patients. Consequently, they are constantly exposed to stress, trauma and compassion fatigue. ...

23/11/2025

👉Considering Your Next Publication with us?

Our latest article, “AI in Nursing Publishing Opportunities, Perils and Professionalism”, offers a timely reflection for anyone preparing to submit work to Nursing in Critical Care. As AI tools become increasingly common in clinical, educational, and research settings, they raise practical and ethical questions that authors and reviewers must now navigate.

For prospective authors, this commentary provides a useful prompt to consider how AI fits into your research process and how to disclose its use responsibly when preparing a manuscript for NICC.

🔗https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70259



BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

22/11/2025

Between Hope and Harm: Understanding Family Agonies at the ECMO Decision Point

This meta-synthesis brings together evidence from six qualitative studies to examine how cognitive pressure, cultural expectations, financial considerations, and communication practices shape the pre-ECMO decision journey.

The authors propose an ecological model illustrating how information, values and institutional systems interact, highlighting the need for culturally sensitive and human-centred decision support in critical care.

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70204

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

21/11/2025

A Data-Driven Model to Predict Delirium in Critically Ill Patients

This study examines how ongoing physiological deterioration contributes to delirium among critically ill patients. Using electronic health records from more than 3600 ICU admissions, the model achieved strong discriminatory performance (AUC = 0.88), identifying several variables whose persistent or worsening trends were linked to delirium onset. These included low diastolic blood pressure, tachycardia, elevated respiratory rate, hypercapnia, low albumin, raised blood urea nitrogen, and hypernatraemia.

🔗https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70193

Background Although many risk factors for delirium have been identified, the contribution of dynamic patterns of clinical deterioration remains underexplored. Aims To explore the risk of delirium ...

19/11/2025

Can we predict early ICU readmission more accurately? Introducing the ReAdmit model

Early unplanned ICU readmission is linked with poorer outcomes, making reliable prediction essential. This study presents ReAdmit, a model that uses routine structured data and radiology notes from the 24 hours before discharge to estimate readmission risk within 72 hours.

Using Clinical BERT and XGBoost, the model achieved strong performance (AUROC 0.783), outperforming structured-data-only models and the SWIFT score. Its consistency across age, gender and ICU type suggests broad clinical relevance.

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70200

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

18/11/2025

Facing the unimaginable: NICU nurses’ experiences during the 2023 Türkiye earthquakes

This qualitative study offers an account of neonatal intensive care nurses’ emergency response during the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes. Nurses described the immediate struggle to protect newborns, the strain of limited supplies and staffing, and the emotional toll that followed.

The findings highlight how disaster preparedness, professional competence and psychological resilience shape nurses’ ability to act under extreme pressure.

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70195

Background Nurses working in intensive care units (ICUs) engage in an intense and demanding struggle to ensure the survival of newborns, who are among the most vulnerable populations during disaster...

16/11/2025

Sunday thoughts: How well do ICU and operating room nurses understand skin tears?

This study assessed the knowledge of intensive care and operating room nurses and found that overall understanding was lower than the maximum achievable score.

Nurses with more than seven years of experience, postgraduate education, prior training and confidence in their skills demonstrated significantly stronger knowledge. Education and clinical experience showed a clear positive effect on scores, signalling a need for continued professional development in this area.

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70191

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

14/11/2025

Family Functioning After a Child’s ICU Stay: What Changes Persist? 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

Admission to a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) can leave lasting effects on family dynamics.
This single-centre cohort study from Brisbane explored how families functioned months to years after their child’s PICU discharge.

🧩 Key findings:

-97% of families maintained balanced functioning post-discharge.
-26 families reported dysfunction, with enmeshment being the most common.
-Poorer family functioning correlated with caregiver mental health issues (post-traumatic stress and mental illness) and child distress, particularly in those under 5 years.
-Some caregivers experienced sleep disturbances and reduced energy up to four years later.

While most families adapt well after PICU, a subset continues to face emotional and behavioural challenges that call for long-term support.

📖 https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70182

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

Background Admission to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is a significant event with potential long-term effects on family dynamics. Although Post-Intensive Care Syndrome in paediatrics (PICS...

13/11/2025

🏠 From ICU to Home: The Hidden Journey of Relatives After Critical Illness

This qualitative study explores how families navigate life during and after critical illness, revealing three key stages:
1️⃣ Living in two worlds: Torn between hospital and home, fearing to miss crucial moments
2️⃣ Transitions marked by uncertainty : Assuming new caregiving roles with limited support
3️⃣ Returning home : Facing a prolonged, exhausting recovery journey

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70220

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

12/11/2025

🕊️ Supporting Families Through the Final Moments of ICU Care

End-of-life care and treatment withdrawal in the ICU are emotionally charged moments, not only for patients but also for their families.

This qualitative study from South Africa explores bereaved family members’ experiences during these critical stages, revealing three key themes:
💬 Emotional reactions and coping
🤝 Desire for proximity and participation in care
❤️ Communication and information sharing

🔗 https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70185

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

Background Bereaved families may experience emotional distress, uncertainty and psychological challenges during treatment withdrawal and end-of-life care in the intensive care unit. Aim To explore...

11/11/2025

🫀 What Do Patients Fear During Their First Steps After Open-Heart Surgery?

Early mobilisation after cardiac surgery is vital to prevent complications, yet many patients hesitate to move due to fear.

This phenomenological study explores patients’ first out-of-bed experiences after open-heart surgery, uncovering their fears of pain, dizziness, and falling, and how trust in nurses and encouragement help them overcome these anxieties.

🔗 Read the full study: https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70152

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses