The aim of the study was to describe the perceptions of critical care nurses concerning family witnessed resuscitation, presenting arguments for or against the practice thereof. A quantitative, descriptive and exploratory approach was used. For the study, a non- probability convenience sample of 100 critical care nurses from five critical care units were used. A combined open-ended and closed-ended questionnaire was used. The majority of critical care nurses in the study disapproved of the idea of family witnessed resuscitation. They believed it to be traumatic for relatives, threatening to the resuscitation process and increasing litigation. Although the dominant feeling was one of disapproval, some critical care nurses felt that family witnessed resuscitation was beneficial to relatives. Recommendations for future practice included incorporation of educational programmes for critical care nurses concerning family witnessed resuscitation and providing training to deal with the stresses of family witnessed resuscitation. / Health Studies / M.A (Health Studies)

The aim of the study was to describe the perceptions of critical care nurses concerning family witnessed resuscitation, presenting arguments for or against the practice thereof. A quantitative, descriptive and exploratory approach was used. For the study, a non- probability convenience sample of 100 critical care nurses from five critical care units were used. A combined open-ended and closed-ended questionnaire was used. The majority of critical care nurses in the study disapproved of the idea of family witnessed resuscitation. They believed it to be traumatic for relatives, threatening to the resuscitation process and increasing litigation. Although the dominant feeling was one of disapproval, some critical care nurses felt that family witnessed resuscitation was beneficial to relatives. Recommendations for future practice included incorporation of educational programmes for critical care nurses concerning family witnessed resuscitation and providing training to deal with the stresses of family witnessed resuscitation. / Health Studies / M.A (Health Studies)

Author's name: Bc. Irena Malá School: Charles university, Prague 1st Faculty of Medicine Institut of Theory and Practice of Nursing Vídeňská 800, 140 59 Prague 4 - Krč Program: Health Care Administration Title: Early postoperative care of the patient with the left ventricular assist device HeartMate II Diploma thesis supervisor: PhDr. Hocková Jana, PhD. Number of pages: 170 Number of attachments: 41 Year: 2013 Key words: early postoperative care, hypotermia, blood transfusion, fluid resuscitation, perioperative cardiovascular dysfunction, pharmacologic support, ventricular assist device HeartMateII, monitoration, device, cardiac arrhythmias, ventilation management, postoperative anticoagulation, glycemic kontrol, renal insufficiency, nutrition, nursing, complications, physiotherapy, psychological aspects The occurrence of the heart failure is similar to an epidemic with high mortality. This fact, together with stagnate or even decreasing number of suitable donors, led to a need of replacing the heart pump activity with an artificial one. Mechanical cardiac support systems are sophisticated devices that are able to support a certain period of time or completely replace the function of the heart as a pump. The indications implantation of mechanical cardiac support is significant symptomatic heart...