Nursing In Critical Care Journal

31/07/2025

🩺 Hope matters.
This prospective cohort study followed ICU patients over 12 months and found that hope levels stayed high and steady post-discharge.

📊 Key predictors of higher hope:
– 🧠 No previous mental health diagnoses
– 💬 Low PTSD symptoms
– 🤝 Strong social support

📰 https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.13235
BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

30/07/2025

🗣️ Can the sound of a loved one’s voice help manage delirium in ICU patients?
This innovative pilot study explores a family-led voice reorientation intervention and its potential to provide comfort, reduce confusion, and support ICU patients through critical illness. 💡

📌 Findings show the intervention is both feasible and acceptable, a promising step towards more person-centred, family-integrated care.

📖 Read more in the Journal of Nursing in Critical Care:
🔗 https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.13210

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

Background Family-led interventions have been identified as effective in many areas of care including the management of delirium. However, because of the heterogeneity and ambiguity of family-led in...

29/07/2025

📣 Editorial Team Update

We are delighted to share some exciting updates to our editorial team!

Peter Nydahl will be joining as Co-Editor, bringing with him a wealth of experience and fresh perspectives to support our mission of publishing high-quality, impactful research in critical care nursing.

🎓 We also warmly welcome Francesca Trotta and Sue Fowler, who join us as Associate Editors. Their expertise will be invaluable in helping to shape the direction of the journal moving forward.

💐 We extend our sincere thanks to Nina Stewart and Lyvonne Tume for their exceptional leadership during their time as Co-Editor and Interim Co-Editor, respectively. We are pleased they will both continue contributing to the journal in their new roles as Associate Editors.

We look forward to this new chapter with gratitude for the past and enthusiasm for the future.

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

28/07/2025

🎥 Now Live!
Watch our second video in the lead-up to the Special Edition: Humanising and Elevating Critical Care – The Power of Families 💙

This time, we’re joined by Guest Editor Prof. Anne-Sylvie Ramelet from the Institute of Higher Education and Research in Healthcare, Lausanne University and University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland.

She shares her powerful insights on the crucial role families play in ICU care and why now is the time to humanise our practice.

🗓️ Submission Deadline: Wednesday, 1 October 2025
📺 Watch now: https://youtu.be/7g4VMve9yuE
📩 Don’t miss your chance to contribute to this important edition!

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

Humanizing and Elevating Critical Care: The Power of FamiliesSubmission deadline: Wednesday, 1 October 2025We are thrilled to invite you to contribute to a s...

27/07/2025

🚨 ICU nurses are burning out silently, and sleep deprivation is a key driver.

🛌 A new Journal of Nursing in Critical Care article reveals how intensive shift work disrupts sleep and affects nutrition, family life, and social wellbeing.

📍 It’s time to rethink rosters, provide better sleep education, and support staff to protect patient care and nurse health.

📖 Read the study here: https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.13218

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

26/07/2025

💔 Grief Before Goodbye

Family members of ICU patients often experience anticipatory grief, a silent, ongoing loss felt before death.

This new study validated the Chinese Anticipatory Grief Scale and identified two key profiles:
🔹 Adaptive coping
🔹 Negative cognition

🧠 Factors like physical health and closeness to the patient predicted how people processed this grief.

https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70117

💡 With this validated tool, nurses and ICU teams can better identify and support families who are silently suffering.

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

25/07/2025

💻🧠 Digital Culture + Digital Competence = Better Clinical Judgement?

In today’s tech-driven ICUs, clinical judgement isn't just about experience, it’s about digital readiness.

This new study reveals that:
✅ Digital culture boosts clinical judgement
✅ The effect strengthens with high digital competence
✅ It’s most effective when CDSSs are easy to use

https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70118

🩺 Strong digital environments empower critical care nurses to act faster, smarter, and with confidence.

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

24/07/2025

🫀 Can we predict who’s most at risk?

A new study presents a nomogram to predict in-hospital mortality in critically ill patients with myocardial infarction and atrial fibrillation, two frequently co-occurring conditions with high mortality.

📊 The model identifies 7 clinical predictors and demonstrates strong accuracy, helping nurses evaluate risk early and personalise care.

🩺 This tool can support timely interventions, smarter resource use, and better patient outcomes.

https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70116

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

23/07/2025

🧠 Frailty & Fear of Death in Critical Care: What’s the Link?

A mixed methods study explores how frailty amplifies death anxiety in older patients admitted to critical care units.

🔍 Key Findings:
– Frailty is significantly associated with increased death anxiety
– Age, low income, and lack of social support predict higher fear of death
– ICU environment influences existential distress

🩺 Implication: Nurses can improve care by addressing both physical decline and psychological distress.

🔗 Read here: https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.13219

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

22/07/2025

🍼✨ Can a simple ratio help us spot sepsis earlier in our most fragile patients?

This study explores the C-Reactive Protein/Albumin Ratio (CAR) as a powerful, independent predictor of sepsis in preterm infants with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC).

🔍 Why it matters for critical care nurses:
Monitoring CAR at diagnosis could personalise interventions, guide early escalation, and potentially improve outcomes for these vulnerable neonates.

📖 Read the full article: https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.70071
🧠
BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

Background Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a critical neonatal digestive disease, is recognized as a contributing factor to neonatal sepsis. However, the role of the C-reactive protein/albumin rati...

20/07/2025

🫶 Sunday Reflection
“We stayed for the children, but who stayed for us?”

A powerful new article in the Journal of Nursing in Critical Care explores the incidence and impact of re-deployment on registered paediatric critical care nurses in the UK.

During and beyond the Covid-19 pandemic, re-deployment became the norm to address workforce shortages, but at what cost?

📖 Read the full article here:
👉 https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.13206

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

Background Re-deployment of medical, nursing and Allied Health Professional workforce became a more prevalent feature in filling workforce gaps during the Covid-19 pandemic; however, very little evi...

19/07/2025

🎥 New Video Alert!
Meet one of our Guest Editors as he introduces the upcoming special issue of the Journal of Nursing in Critical Care focused on:

💙 Humanising and Elevating Critical Care: The Power of Families

This short video outlines our Call for Papers for this powerful and timely edition, highlighting the vital role of families in ICU care and decision-making.

🗓️ Submission Deadline: Wednesday, 1 October 2025
📺 Watch now on YouTube:
👉 https://youtu.be/KVkpOLcK6QQ?si=naLWnisCstiKA2Ov

If you're a researcher, nurse, or healthcare educator with work to share on family-centred care in the ICU, we'd love to hear from you.

BACCN British Association of Critical Care Nurses

In this video, the guest editor, Dr Peter Nydahl, of our upcoming special issue introduces the theme "Humanising and Elevating Critical Care: The Power of Fa...