title: Brain resuscitation. Nursing interventions.
abstract: Critical care nurses who participate in brain resuscitation are constantly challenged to meet the dynamically changing demands of cerebral preservation therapy. New therapies are continuously being developed, experimentally tested, and clinically implemented. Calcium channel blockers, hemodilution, free radical scavengers, and ventriculosubarachnoid perfusion of oxygenated fluorocarbon emulsions are therapies that are currently on the horizon in the field of brain resuscitation. Familiarity with these therapies and a discriminating understanding of their physiologic effects is required by the critical care nurse who seeks to actively participate as a member of the brain resuscitation team. The informed critical care nurse who participates in postcardiac arrest cerebral preservation is best prepared to perform the roles of bedside caregiver, patient advocate, and family liaison. This dynamic, unfolding, and as yet unpredictable field of brain resuscitation presents great challenges, possibilities, and potential rewards for critical care nursing.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sullivan
mesh_terms: D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000451:nursing* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000451:nursing / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D009733:Nursing Diagnosis; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D012151:Resuscitation / Q000451:nursing*