ICU Inservice

Early Mobility in the ICU and Post-Intensive Care Syndrome, by
Karen Fletcher, PT, DPT

Free One CEU; Board Meeting to Follow

Wednesday, February 19, 2020 @ 5:30 PM

Spring Valley Hospital Rehab, Day Room

5400 S Rainbow Blvd

Las Vegas, NV 89118

Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will:

• 1. Understand how time in the ICU can effect a patient’s mobility
• 2. Understand how an early mobility program in the ICU, such as the one at Spring Valley Hospital, can positively affect a patient’s mobility
• 3. Understand how Post-Intensive Care Syndrome (PICS) can continue to affect a patient after they leave the ICU and how we as therapists can help.

Speaker Biography:

Karen Fletcher, PT, DPT is the lead ICU physical therapist at Spring Valley Hospital (SVH). Karen graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 2015 and has since been working at SVH for a little over four and a half years. Karen is also a member of SVH’s ABCDEF committee to help establish the early mobility program in the ICU, and continues to educate other therapists, nursing staff, and other health care providers in the interdisciplinary team on the importance of early mobility in the ICU.

Session Abstract:

Patients admitted to the ICU suffer from more than just the illness that placed them there. Things such as prolonged bed rest and life-saving interventions and therapeutics can cause patients to lose functional independence and quality of life. There has been an outpouring of research within the past decade supporting the initiation of early mobility to help reduce the length of ICU stay, increase the number of patients able to discharge directly home, and reduce the affects of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome which can linger long after a patient leaves the ICU.  Spring Valley Hospital is one of the hospitals within the Valley Health System that has initiated an early mobility program through the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s ICU Liberation  ABCDEF Bundle.