Wednesday, July 11, 2007: 9:45 AM-11:15 AM
Nurse Practitioners: The New Intensivists
Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to discuss the role of nurse practitioners in critical care settings.
Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to describe appropriate educational requirements for nurse practitioners within the acute and critical care setting.
The role of the nurse practitioner is evolving to meet the needs of health care systems and patients. The mandate to limit physician residency hours in the United States has limited the availability of skilled care providers within the acute and critical care settings. Patients have increased acuity and require ongoing bedside management and intervention. In critical care units, this requires high-quality,evidence-based bedside care. In the 40-bed SICU and 20-bed TICU of a large academic medical center, we have grown from a single nurse practitioner to a group of 12. The role is expansive and encompasses bedside management, education of nurses and resident physicians, and multiple dimensions of family centered care. The role has demanded increased procedural skills including bedside percutaneous tracheostomy, pulmonary artery catheter placement, intubations, chest tubes and multiple other procedures. Nurse practitioner's continuous bedside management has enhanced patient outcomes, saved money, and decreased patient complications. The knowledge and ability to facilitate the recovery of critically ill individuals is based on organized strategic activity and continuity of care. This extensive role has resulted in the development of an critical care nurse practitioner internship. This program provides critical care experience to students within an acute care NP program. The goal of this discussion is to bring to the forefront the advantages of expanding the role of nurse practitioners within acute and critical care settings. It will also highlight the benefits this new role holds for improving patient outcomes.
Organizer:	Mary Wyckoff, PhD, APRN, BC, CCNS, CCRN
Presenters:	Douglas Houghton, MSN, ARNP, CCRN Valerie Wells, MSN Nichole A. Crenshaw, ARNP, MSN Salma Hernandez, MSN, ARNP, BC