
Over 5.7 million critically ill patients are admitted to intensive care units (ICUs) in the U.S. each year. For over two decades, I have led research to reduce risk and prevent serious complications for these vulnerable patients. Ventilator-associated pneumonia is one of the most common complications associated with critical illness. In the 1990s, about one in four patients on a hospital ventilator breathing machine contracted pneumonia and half would die. The protocols I developed through studies funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) led to clinical practice changes and a significant decrease in ICU ventilator-associated...