Reading between the lines, the key to successfully implementing early rehabilitation in critical care

Reading between the lines, the key to successfully implementing early rehabilitation in critical care

McWilliams DJ
Intensive and Critical Care Nursing , October 2017 Volume 42, Pages 5–7

The number of critically ill individuals, complexity of illness, and cost of critical care has continued to increase over time (Bauman and Hyzy, 2014). Although this represents an older critical care population than previously seen, presenting with a variety of pre-existing comorbidities, improvements in intensive care services and delivery have meant survival rates have improved in recent years (Esteban et al., 2013; Kaukonen et al., 2014). When considering successful outcomes from critical illness, it is now acknowledged that it is no longer sufficient or appropriate to consider survival alone (Desai et al., 2011).