PICU Up! An AMP Program (John Hopkins Children Center)

Summary

Traditional paediatric intensive care unit (ICU) care has meant keeping young patients immobilised by sedation, which allows them to rest and ease their pain and suffering. However, for patients who recover, this practice can often leave them physiologically dependent on opioids and benzodiazepines, with disturbed sleep, increased delirium, and physical atrophy. And this practice fails to allow dying patients meaningful interaction with their loved ones.

PICU Up! was developed at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in the US over a 2-year period of methodical protocol implementation and review, including pre- and post-launch testing by caregivers in every clinical discipline across the PICU. Study results demonstrated that a bundled intervention to create a healing environment in the PICU with structured activity is safe, feasible, and may have benefits for short- and long-term outcomes of critically ill children.

It has since been successfully adapted at 200+ hospitals globally and implemented directly at 25+ children's hospitals nationwide.