Abstract: Objective: To investigate the cognition, attitudes and clinical practice of medical staffs on the early rehabilitation of ICU patients. Methods: The questionnaire of medical staffs' cognition, attitudes and clinical practice about early ICU rehabilitation was applied. Totally 528 ICU medical staffs were included. Results: The cognition and attitudes of medical staffs on the early ICU rehabilitation were at low level and the clinical practice was below average score. There were many obstacles to early ICU rehabilitation. Medical staffs with different educational degree, occupations, professional titles, age, and ICU working period had different cognition scores, and the differences were significant (P<0.05). Medical staffs with different educational degree, age, occupations, ICU types, ICU working period, professional titles and positions had different attitudes scores, and the differences were significant (P<0.05). There were significant differences between doctors and nurses in 6 items including concept, stop indication and effect (P<0.05). Conclusion: The medical staffs' cognition and attitudes on early ICU rehabilitation were not optimistic. There were still many difficulties in clinical practice, which limited the clinical implementation and development of early ICU rehabilitation.

Key words: critical care; medical staffs; early rehabilitation; cognition; attitude; practice status