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Aims: This manuscript aims to describe one acute care hospital's ICU journey during the COVID‐19 pandemic and how fundamental care was central to the implementation of team‐based models of care. Background: Over the course of the COVID‐19 pandemic, team‐based and alternative models of care are being employed to manage and address global shortages and surge capacity. Employing these alternate models of care required attention to ensure fundamental care needs of patients were being met. Design/Method: The following paper describes an ICU's journey of focusing on the delivery of the fundamentals of care through the implementation of team‐based models of care to address the surge in patient care demands experienced in response to our global pandemic. Conclusions: The implementation of an evidence‐informed approach to optimizing models of care and staffing in the ICU amid the evolving COVID‐19 waves in one acute‐care hospital is provided. This local approach focused on meeting patients' fundamental care needs throughout the necessary introduction of team‐based care models and staffing changes and drew from evolving evidence, the ILC Fundamentals of Care Framework, and regulatory guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainties around risk of transmission, urgent hospital resuscitation (also known as "Code Blue") efforts are needed, pivoting to protect health care workers. This article provides teaching tips for "Protected Code Blues." In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainties around risk of transmission, urgent hospital resuscitation (also known as "Code Blue") efforts are needed, pivoting to protect health care workers. This article provides teaching tips for "Protected Code Blues." [[J Contin Educ Nurs. 2020;51(9):399–401.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

D espite the high dem and, about 80% of donor lungs are rejected because they are not suitable for transplantation. Many lungs are considered unusable because of the injury that occurs with brain death and intensive care unit (ICU) complications, such as barotrauma, lung edema, aspirations, and pneumonia. This is what led to the development of ex-vivo lung perfusion. W ith all of the solid organs, typically they are retrieved, put on ice and transported to the transplanting facility. By putting lungs on ice, it prevents cell death. It slows down the dying process by stopping all cell metabolism from occurring and this m ethod has been widely accepted for preserving organ viability. But this strategy is non-selective, so vital enzymes and cell processes also stop working, which leads to cell edema and injury. By putting organs on ice, health care teams are essentially racing against time because the organ is dying and we are just slowing the dying process with the ice. The organ needs to get into a human body so it can be perfused. But ex-vivo lung perfusion is different because it allows lungs to be kept at normal body temperature, just like they would be in a human body. They can stay in this sterile bubble for hours and, in this time, we are able to see how the lung functions and if it can improve. So, with this technology, lungs that are questionable, lungs that normally would never be transplanted, such as those from cardiac death, can be taken and assessed for a few hours to see if they are any good instead of rejecting them right away. This technology also allows the re-expansion of areas that have collapsed, clearing of secretions, the sampling of blood gases, etc. Current research is looking at ways to heal lungs after aspiration, treating infections with high-dose antibiotics, using gene therapy to alter lungs, and regenerating gas exchange tis s u e - all prior to the lungs being transplanted into a recipient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]