Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 19, 2026
Observational Study Protocol for Repeated Clinical Examination and Critical Care Ultrasonography Within the Simple Intensive Care Studies
Published on: January 16, 2019
The PRaCTICaL study of nurse led, intensive care follow-up programmes for improving long term outcomes from critical
B H Cuthbertson1, J Rattray, M K Campbell
1Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto. brian.cuthbertson@sunnybrook.ca
Objectives:
To test the hypothesis that nurse led follow-up programmes are effective and cost effective in improving quality of life after discharge from intensive care.
Design:
A pragmatic, non-blinded, multicentre, randomised controlled trial.
Setting:
Three UK hospitals (two teaching hospitals and one district general hospital).
Participants:
286 patients aged >or=18 years were recruited after discharge from intensive care between September 2006 and October 2007.
Intervention:
Nurse led intensive care follow-up programmes versus standard care. Main outcome measure(s) Health related quality of life (measured with the SF-36 questionnaire) at 12 months after randomisation. A cost effectiveness analysis was also performed.
Results:
286 patients were recruited and 192 completed one year follow-up. At 12 months, there was no evidence of a difference in the SF-36 physical component score (mean 42.0 (SD 10.6) v 40.8 (SD 11.9), effect size 1.1 (95% CI -1.9 to 4.2), P=0.46) or the SF-36 mental component score (effect size 0.4 (-3.0 to 3.7), P=0.83). There were no statistically significant differences in secondary outcomes or subgroup analyses. Follow-up programmes were significantly more costly than standard care and are unlikely to be considered cost effective.
Conclusions:
A nurse led intensive care follow-up programme showed no evidence of being effective or cost effective in improving patients' quality of life in the year after discharge from intensive care. Further work should focus on the roles of early physical rehabilitation, delirium, cognitive dysfunction, and relatives in recovery from critical illness. Intensive care units should review their follow-up programmes in light of these results.
Trial Registration:
ISRCTN 24294750.
Related Concept Videos
01:29Nursing Interventions II: Selecting and Classifying the Nursing Interventions
01:15Nursing Implementation
The five steps to implementing effective nursing care include reassessing the patient, reviewing and revising the existing nursing care plan, organizing the resources and care delivery, anticipating and preventing complications, and implementing nursing interventions.
01:21Planning Nursing Care I
01:18The Scientific Method in Nursing Process
When using research findings to change practice, one must understand the process used to guide a study. The scientific method is a systematic, step-by-step process that supports the data's validity, reliability, and generalizability. As a result, findings can be safely...
01:27Nursing Clinical Information System
A Nursing Clinical Information System (NCIS) is a specialized type of healthcare information system tailored to meet the unique needs of nursing practice. It incorporates the principles of nursing informatics to streamline information management and improve the quality of care delivery.
Critical attributes of NCIS include:
01:24Nursing Process for Patient and Caregiver Teaching II: Planning and Implementation