[Early mobilization. Competencies, responsibilities, milestones]

Area of Science:

• Intensive care medicine
• Interprofessional collaboration
• Patient rehabilitation

Background:

• Early mobilization is crucial for intensive care patients, reducing psychocognitive deficits, delirium, and deconditioning.
• An interdisciplinary approach to early mobilization, considering various levels, is beneficial.
• This study explored professional collaboration and task division in early mobilization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate interprofessional collaboration and task distribution in early mobilization.
• To understand the perspectives of healthcare professionals on early mobilization practices.

Main Methods:

• A questionnaire survey was conducted at the 25th Bremen Conference on Intensive Medicine and Nursing.
• 120 participants from the German Early Mobilization Network meeting were invited to participate.
• 102 questionnaires were analyzed to gather data on early mobilization practices.

Main Results:

• Most participants acknowledged the interdisciplinary nature of early mobilization.
• No single professional group was solely responsible for early mobilization tasks.
• Mobilizing orally intubated patients may require two nurses and a physical therapist, with heterogeneous implementation in practice.

Conclusions:

• A lack of consensus exists regarding collaboration, competencies, and responsibilities for early mobilization.
• Current practices show a deficit in interprofessional communication, potentially hindering efficient knowledge utilization.
• Further research is needed to establish clear guidelines for interprofessional early mobilization.