Tidig extubering efter hjärtkirurgi : Intensivvårdssjuksköterskans kunskap om tidig extubering och deras syn på faktorer som påverkar tiden till extubering

Sammanfattning: Early extubation of cardiac surgery patients has become increasingly important. The assessment of the patient before an early extubation is crucial and the intensive care nurses (ICU nurses) in this estimation is there for very important. The aim of this study was to examine critical care nurses' knowledge of early extubation, and what view ICU nurse has about factors that affect the time to extubation of cardiac surgery patients. A quantitative approach with descriptive and comparative design was used. Selection was all ICU nurses at a thoracic intensive care unit who were clinically active in patient care. The study showed that ICU nurses had good knowledge of why an early extubation was essential. However, the knowledge about the unit’s extubation criteria was low. ICU nurses felt that the criteria for the cardiac surgery patients on the unit was adequate. The time target of 90 minutes was reasonable. No relationship existed between professional experience and knowledge of the extubation criteria or between knowledge of the criteria and need of support from colleagues in early extubation of the cardiac surgery patients. The ICU nurses considered themselves familiar with the unit’s extubation criteria but the knowledge of them was low and the majority was working according to their own criteria. The units criteria was not sufficiently visible in the unit and could contributed to the low level of knowledge and contribute to that the majority of the ICU nurses was working according to their own criteria.