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Background: Mechanical ventilation is a core intervention in critical care, but may also lead to negative consequences. Therefore, ventilator weaning is crucial for patient recovery. Numerous weaning interventions have been investigated, but an overview of interventions to evaluate different foci on weaning research is still missing., Aim: To provide an overview of interventions associated with ventilator weaning., Study Design: We conducted a scoping review. A systematic search of the Medline, CINAHL and Cochrane Library databases was carried out in May 2023. Interventions from studies or reviews that aimed to extubate or decannulate mechanically ventilated patients in intensive care units were included. Studies concerning children, outpatients or non-invasive ventilation were excluded. Screening and data extraction were conducted independently by three reviewers. Identified interventions were thematically analysed and clustered., Results: Of the 7175 records identified, 193 studies were included. A total of six clusters were formed: entitled enteral nutrition (three studies), tracheostomy (17 studies), physical treatment (13 studies), ventilation modes and settings (47 studies), intervention bundles (42 studies), and pharmacological interventions including analgesic agents (8 studies), sedative agents (53 studies) and other agents (15 studies)., Conclusions: Ventilator weaning is widely researched with a special focus on ventilation modes and pharmacological agents. Some aspects remain poorly researched or unaddressed (e.g. nutrition, delirium treatment, sleep promotion)., Relevance to Clinical Practice: This review compiles studies on ventilator weaning interventions in thematic clusters, highlighting the need for multidisciplinary care and consideration of various interventions. Future research should combine different interventions and investigate their interconnection., (© 2024 The Author(s). Nursing in Critical Care published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Association of Critical Care Nurses.)

This review analyses the Anglo-American nursing literature of the past 15 years that focuses on the subject of visiting policies at intensive care units. It is the aim of this paper to prepare a scientific base for discussion on ICU visiting policies in German nursing literature. Part 1 describes three visiting models whose concepts can be clearly differentiated. This is followed by the argumentation of the described models. Part 2 puts the focus on studies that have investigated visiting needs of patients as well as studies, in which the effect of visits and visiting models on patients has been researched. Transferability of results to the situation in Germany seems to be difficult for two reasons. First, all studies took part in a different cultural context. Secondly, most studies are limited by small size and convenient samples. Nevertheless, some studies indicate trends and support each other through similar findings. While reviewing the literature, it turned out that there has been an intensive debate about ICU visiting policies in Anglo-American nursing journals. This debate can not be held without involving and questioning nurses' professional understanding of patient care. Requirements for nurses as a result of possible changes of the visiting policies are presented and discussed. The article ends with suggestions for future research in Germany.