Thanks to the largest grant the school has ever received, the University of Pennsylvania Nursing School will investigate better ways of managing sedation for children on life-saving ventilators. The $10 million grant was recently awarded by the National Institutes of Health.

The study, which began in April, promises to be one of the most comprehensive ever done in pediatric critical care. Specifically, through a nurse's clinical judgment, it aims to minimize recovery times of patients on ventilation tubes by tightly managing titration of sedatives.

More than 2,750 patients at 18 pediatric hospitals in the United States and Canada will take part in the study during the next five years.

Sources: University of Pennsylvania press release and The Daily Pennsylvanian