Liberation Playbook: Pain, Sedation, Sleep, and Mobility Led by Advanced Practice Registered Nurses.

Mechanical ventilation is lifesaving yet harmful when paired with deep sedation and immobility. The ABCDEF, or intensive care unit liberation bundle (assessment and treatment of pain, spontaneous awakening and breathing trials, judicious choice of analgesia/sedation, delirium prevention/management, early mobility, and family engagement) mitigates these risks, improving survival, reducing delirium and coma, shortening time receiving ventilation, and promoting recovery. This article synthesizes evidence for the awake-and-walking intensive care unit, in which wakefulness and mobility are the default. We define the role of the advanced practice registered nurse in reliable implementation of this model: embedding bundle elements into workflows, aligning sedation and mobility targets, coordinating interprofessional teams, and driving culture change through measurement and feedback. A case example illustrates a patient's trajectory under high versus low adherence. We close with pragmatic strategies to overcome workflow fragmentation, staffing variability, and safety concerns, mapping barriers to solutions such as protocol standardization, nurse-respiratory therapist coleadership, daily goal alignment, and data transparency.