Here’s what I learned:
My husband was a likely candidate for self-extubation because:
– He was a surgical patient older than sixty-five.
– He had prolonged immobility because he’d been on a ventilator for over a week already and was in the ICU for about a month.
– He had delirium.
– There is a higher likelihood of self-extubation among patients who are hours away from a planned extubation
– The study above suggests the importance of at least one nurse monitoring patients with these attributes at all times.
Other points to remember:
– The most common risk factor for self-extubation is inadequate sedation that leads to patient agitation.
– The frequency of self-extubation is higher the hour before and after shift change.