Nursing Management of Sedation in Mechanically Ventilated Patients

Nursing management of sedation in mechanically ventilated patients is complex. The complexity of sedation practices emerges from inconsistency of assessing patient needs and communication between nurses and physicians. The objective of the research is to verify themes of nursing management of sedation practices that will assist in the advancement of evidence-based practice. Analysis of research included the following design studies: meta-analysis, qualitative content analysis, qualitative study, and quasi-experimental. The meta-analysis reviews four different studies that assess protocol-directed sedation. The qualitative content analysis utilizes an electronic survey that evaluates nurses’ perceptions of the current sedation administration practices. The second qualitative study creates a survey tool that attempts to identify themes related to the challenges of analgo-sedation strategies. The method of the quasi-experimental study is providing nurses with an educational session on assessing and managing sedation prior to a pre and post-test. The findings of all four articles indicated that variations in assessment and communication and collaboration between nurses and physicians complicated nursing management of sedation in mechanically ventilated patients. Examination of the research articles concluded that nurses meet challenges with the consistency of care when administering sedation to mechanically ventilated patients