Journal of Pediatric Critical Care · Published 2025-03-01 · DOI 10.4103/jpcc.jpcc_20_25
Managing intensive care unit (ICU) patients is challenging due to various complications, leading to the creation of the mnemonic “FAST HUG” by Jean-Luis Vincent in 2005. This later expanded to “FAST HUGS BID,” helping clinicians systematically assess critical aspects of patient care, including Feeding, Analgesia, Sedation, Thromboembolism prophylaxis, Head-of-bed elevation, Ulcer prophylaxis, Glycemic control, Spontaneous breathing trials, Bowel management, Infection prevention, and therapy De-escalation. Managing a child in the pediatric ICU (PICU) is even more complex, as the patient’s anatomical and physiological characteristics continuously evolve across different age groups. This dynamic complexity, combined with the high-acuity environment, increases the risk of errors and omissions in medical care, including medication management and prescriptions. After a thorough literature review, we found no standardized checklist tailored to PICU patients. Therefore, considering the unique challenges of pediatric intensive care, we developed the modified mnemonic FAST HUGS BID as a systematic approach to optimize our patient management.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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