Continuing education for teams at the intensive care units on the mechanical ventilator and patient safety

integrative review

Abstract

In order to provide the patient with synchronous, adequate, safe ventilation and for the shortest possible time, it is important that the professionals of the intensive care team have an in-depth knowledge of mechanical ventilation and the ventilator. The training and continuing education actions aimed at these professionals are essential for an adequacy in the quality of health care and in the correct use of the mechanical ventilator. The integrative literature review is presented here and sought scientific studies that support the importance of continuing education for nurses, physical therapists and physicians working with mechanical ventilators in Intensive Care Units. It started with the following research objective: To understand what the scientific research of the last six years is about the training of health professionals and the use of the mechanical ventilator with a view to the health and safety of the patient. The search was carried out on the platforms of USP, Fiocruz and Google Scholar, from 2016 to 2021. As search terms in Portuguese, English and Spanish: mechanical ventilator, training, education, doctor, nurse, physiotherapist, mechanical ventilation, patient safety. The integrative review resulted in 13 studies of interest for research. After reading, in full, four categories of analysis were defined for these studies: 1- Fundamental concepts: Ventilation and Ventilator; 2- Mechanical Ventilator: components, accessories and protocols aimed at preventing VAP; 3- Patient safety on mechanical ventilation; 4- Continuing education of intensivists for the use of mechanical ventilators. The main results of this review were: The finding that continuing education is essential for the multidisciplinary team that works with mechanical ventilation; that the qualification of these professionals reduces the rate of occurrence of pneumonia associated with mechanical ventilation; and that the availability of digital educational resources makes learning possible without putting patients at risk.