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Editorial
November 20, 2018

Reducing the Stress on Clinicians Working in the ICU

Author Affiliations
  • 1Department of Acute and Tertiary Care, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • 2Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • 3Program on Ethics and Decision Making in Critical Illness, CRISMA Center, Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
JAMA. 2018;320(19):1981-1982. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.14285

It is important to reduce the stress of clinicians working in the intensive care unit (ICU). For instance, an estimated 39% of ICU nurses exhibit symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, the prevalence of clinical depression among nurses is twice the national average, and many report symptoms consistent with burnout.1,2 This problem is not limited to nurses; physicians, medical trainees, and others who work in the ICU environment experience similar levels of psychological distress.2

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