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Long-term consequences of critical illness: a new opportunity for high-impact critical care nurses.

In the past decade, we have learned some disconcerting information about the long-term consequences that patients in intensive care units (ICUs) and their families suffer. Each year in the United States, we discharge millions of critically ill patients back into the community. Although we have always assumed that an ICU stay takes a toll and that recovery may take a while, we now know how common, devastating, and prolonged the potential long-term consequences of critical illness can be. Critical care researchers and practitioners are currently working to identify ways to reduce the incidence of long-term consequences of critical illness. Armed with knowledge of the potential consequences, critical care nurses can play a key role in prevention and in promoting awareness among those involved in outpatient care. Three emerging concepts in health care are driving and supporting quality initiatives to address the long-term consequences of critical illness. The first is the emphasis on familycentered care. The second is the focus on safe transitions and handoffs across the continuum of care. The third is the concept that critical care is defined by the patient and not by the location. Critically ill patients’ episodes of care are now seen as beginning wherever their condition becomes critical and ending when the longterm consequences of critical illness are managed. Addressing the long-term consequences of critical illness in patients and their families involves communication across the continuum of care and understanding the potential problems that our patients and their families may experience long after they are discharged from our units.