Consensus conference on sedation assessment. A collaborative venture by Abbott Laboratories, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, and Saint Thomas Health System.

cal care practice. Members had practice expertise in medical, surgical, cardiovascular, neurosurgical, pedi-atric, and adult critical care nursing and represented hospital practice from across the United States. In addition, members were selected for participation in the panel on the basis of their expertise specifically relevant to sedation assessment, including pain management, anxiety/ fear, sleep, patient-ventilator syn-chrony, delirium, clinical pharma-In August 2002, a group of critical care experts (Figure 1) met in Nashville, Tenn, for a consensus conference on sedation assessment. The conference was made possible though a collaboration between the American Association of Critical-Tenn, and was designed to address the critical need for a valid and reliable scale for sedation assessment in critically ill patients. The collaboration was envisioned to be a 3-phase process: Phase 1: Convene a group of experts in sedation assessment to validate the state of the science on sedation assessment and to recommend characteristics of an " ideal " sedation assessment scale. Phase 2: Develop a new sedation assessment scale for critically ill adult patients. Phase 3: Conduct a multisite clinical research project to test the validity and reliability of the new scale. The members of this expert panel were selected on the basis of their expertise in a variety of critical care areas and aspects of sedation to get a broad perspective on the sedation needs in criti-ClinicalArticle To receive CE credit for this article, visit the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses' (AACN) Web site at http://www .aacn.org, click on " Education " and select " Continuing Education, " or call AACN's Fax On Demand at (800) 222-6329 and request item No. 1176.