ArticleBMC nursing2026
Roles and responsibilities of nurses in mechanical ventilation in pediatric intensive care units: a national survey in Austria.
Article in BMC nursing, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn pediatric intensive care units (PICU), mechanical ventilation (MV) and ventilator weaning are common but complex interventions. Internationally, nurses have a central role in ventilator weaning, and the evidence on nurse-led weaning indicates positive effects on the duration of MV. However, little is known about the roles and responsibilities of nurses in Austrian PICUs. This study aims to determine nurses´ roles and responsibilities during MV treatment in Austrian PICUs.
methodsA cross-sectional study was conducted between May and October 2023. To this end, nurses and physicians from all PICUs in Austria (n = 10) completed an online survey with self-developed questionnaires, asking about the use of guidelines, the role in ventilator and sedation weaning and the need for further education. Statistical analysis with SPSS version 29.0 included multiple-response analysis, Pearson´s chi-square test, phi coefficient, Fisher´s exact test, Mann-Whitney-U-test, biserial rank correlation, and Spearman correlation.
results107 nurses and 20 physicians responded to the questionnaire. The use of a protocol for MV was reported by 8.1% and for weaning by 1.6% of the participants. Nurses and physicians share responsibility for adjusting the MV settings and assessing weaning readiness. Individual parameters such as oxygen saturation (98.7%), PEEP (30.3%), respiratory rate (50%), pressure control level (42.1%), or ventilation mode (35.5%) are set independently by the nurses. The autonomy of nurses in weaning correlates with increasing professional experience (r = 0.318, p = 0.008) and the completion of special training for pediatric intensive care (r = 0.378, p = 0.001). Safety in dealing with mechanically ventilated children also correlates with increasing professional experience in the PICU (r = 0.252, p = 0.035) and special training for pediatric intensive care (r = 0.401, p < 0.001).
conclusionThe results of this survey on the roles and responsibilities of nurses in Austrian PICUs show that protocols for mechanical ventilation and ventilator weaning are rarely used and important decisions are made together by physicians and nurses. The results provide important information for planning future intervention studies to implement a standardized approach based on evidence-based protocols and for developing a special training for Respiratory Specialized Nurses in Austria in line with international standards.
trial registrationOpen Science Framework, 7UTYX, April 18th ,2025. This study was registered retrospectively: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/7UTYX .
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.