ArticleNursing in critical care2026
Navigating Spinal Safety: Critical Care Nurses' Experiences of Caring for Patients With Spinal Trauma and Disorders.
Article in Nursing in critical care, 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
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPatients with spinal trauma and disorders admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) require complex care that combines life-sustaining treatment, spinal precautions, complication prevention and rehabilitation-related support. Although ICU nurses are central to maintaining patient safety, little is known about their experiences of caring for this patient group.
aimTo explore ICU nurses' experiences of caring for patients with spinal trauma and disorders. STUDY
designA descriptive qualitative study.
methodsFifteen ICU nurses from three tertiary hospitals in Hunan Province, China, were recruited using purposive sampling. Data were collected through one-to-one semi-structured interviews between January and April 2026. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis. The study was reported in accordance with the COREQ checklist.
findingsFive themes were generated: maintaining spinal safety during ICU care; managing the burden of immobility and high dependency; working under pressure in high-risk spinal care; making care safer through team support; and building specialist competence within ICU practice. Nurses experienced spinal safety as a continuous concern embedded in routine ICU care, including coordinating high-risk logrolling and transfer, recognising neurological changes with limited confidence and balancing positioning, orthosis use and pressure-injury risks. They also described interrelated physiological needs, frequent and precise patient needs, rehabilitation limits, uncertain prognosis, reliance on team support and more vigilant, anticipatory and holistic care.
conclusionsCaring for patients with spinal trauma and disorders in ICUs requires nurses to balance spinal safety, critical illness management, high dependency care and emotional support. ICU nurses developed anticipatory and holistic approaches, but also experienced uncertainty and pressure when specialist spinal care knowledge was limited. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: ICU teams should develop spinal safety checklists, standardised guidance for logrolling, transfer, positioning and orthosis management and practical training programmes. Strengthening collaboration between ICU teams and spinal specialists may improve nurse competence and patient safety.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion 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 OpenQuestion graph.