This weekend was the second annual Critical Care Rehabilitation Conference at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. We focused on evaluating and discussing the most current research being developed to understand and improve patient outcomes in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Perhaps the most potent message from the weekend is the utmost importance of a interdisciplinary team for approaching patient centered care. This couldn’t have been better illustrated by the diversity of participants at the conference:
Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Physicians Assistants, Respiratory Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, Nurses, Physicians, Rehab Techs, Psychologists, Patients, Educators, Students, & Social Workers. We all have a piece to contribute !
Getting critically ill patients up and moving requires a culture shift. We have to change minds (and often this may even start with our own) that the ICU is inherently a safe place and that there are real long term physical, cognitive, and psychiatric improvements with early mobilization.
If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of early mobilization, want to be a champion to start a program in your hospital, or are just curious to hear more about it:
- Check out the twitter feed from the weekend’s conference #icurehab and follow us @icurehab for a stream of great conversation and resources!
- Leave me a message and I will give you information about how to join a free, international, interactive “virtual community” of clinicians and researchers, the ICURecovery Network ! It will give you access to a growing body of resources, including videos, documents, website links, and event information for clinicians interested in improving the recovery of critically ill patients, with a particular focus on early rehabilitation and related intervention.
A Cup A Day 
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