In this issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics, guest editors Kenneth Oja and Mary Beth Flynn Makic bring their considerable expertise to the topic of Challenging Conventions: Evidence-Based Updates to Traditional Practices. Top experts challenge long-standing nursing practices in critical care that persist despite a lack of supporting evidence or, in some cases, in direct contradiction to it. Readers will learn why certain traditional interventions remain commonplace, what current evidence suggests as best practice, and how shifting toward evidence-based care improves patient outcomes. By re-evaluating familiar routines through a critical lens, this issue empowers clinicians to reflect on their own practice, embrace updates supported by science, and contribute to a culture of continuous improvement in critical care settings.
- Contains 12 relevant, practice-oriented topics including acute delirium management; chlorhexidine gluconate oral care and prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia; peripheral intravenous management: vessel health; fluid restriction in heart failure; and more.
- Provides in-depth clinical reviews on challenging conventions: evidence-based updates to traditional practices, offering actionable insights for clinical practice.
- Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.
Authors
Mary Beth Flynn Makic Professor, University of Colorado College of Nursing, Aurora, Colorado; Nurse Scientist, Denver Health, Denver, Colorado, USA. Mary Beth Flynn Makic has more than 30 years of critical care experience in research, evidence-based practice, and clinical education. She is a Professor at the University of Colorado College of Nursing and Program Director for the Adult-Gerontology Clinical Nurse Specialist graduateprogram. She is also a Research Scientist at a Level I trauma center in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Makic
achieved her BSN from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. She completed her Masters of Science at the University of Maryland at Baltimore with a focus on trauma patient populations and the advanced practice role of a Clinical Nurse Specialist. Her PhD was conferred in 2007 by the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado. She is active locally and nationally in several professional organizations. She recently served on the Board of Directors for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. She also serves on the editorial board of several critical care journals, has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, and is a successor co-author of two Elsevier books on nursing diagnosis. Dr. Makic is well known for her passion for improving patient outcomes and nursing practice through evidence-based practice. Kenneth John Oja Assistant Professor, Adjunct University of Colorado Denver - Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA.
