.jpg "Ann Matta, ACNP, , MSN photo")
Ann Matta, ACNP, , MSN
Nurse Practitioner
University of Maryland Medical Center, Maryland, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Katie Andersen, ACNP, BSN, MSN
University of Maryland Medical Center, R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center
Baltimore, MD, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Shannon Gaasch, CRNP
Nurse Practitioner
University of Maryland Medical Center, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Michelle Dawson, CRNP
Nurse Practitioner
University of Virginia Medical Center, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Carmel McComiskey, DNP,
Director, Nurse Practitioners
University of Maryland Medical Center
Baltimore, MD, United States
Disclosure information not submitted.
Title:
APP Critical Care Bootcamp: A Novel Method of Standardizing APP Critical Care Orientation
Introduction:
Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) are an integral component to delivering high quality care within intensive care units (ICU) across the US. Despite their valued presence, structured APP orientation remains sparse and unpredictable. Organized orientation plans have been shown to improve retention and facilitate role assimilation for the APP, particularly in demanding environments such as the ICU. To provide a structured orientation for all ICU APPs, a critical care (CC) bootcamp was designed to streamline and accelerate the orientation process and augment APP knowledge and technical skills to expeditiously integrate APPs into the CC setting.
Methods:
In 2018, the APP CC Director, Managers and Medical Directors at a large, quaternary care academic medical center identified core educational content necessary to care for patients in a variety of CC environments. They developed a bootcamp curriculum that meet the orientation needs of all CC APPs across the organization’s nine ICUs. The five-day bootcamp includes 26 lectures, five hands-on skills labs for invasive procedures, and six high fidelity simulation cases. The participants complete an evaluation of each program daily and they earn 26 continuing education credits when they complete the program.
Results:
Since the inaugural bootcamp, six courses have been held providing education for 80 APPs. Pre and post bootcamp evaluations indicate that this structured form of orientation has resulted in improved confidence in CC topics, invasive procedures, and failure-to-rescue simulations. Improved satisfaction with new orientees’ clinical knowledge and skills have been reported by APP managers and critical CC attendings.
Conclusion:
Incorporation of a CC bootcamp serves as a vital tool to ensure that all CC APPs have a consistent and standardized training in CC knowledge and skills. Ultimately, this form of condensed education standardizes APP orientation, optimizes safe and meaningful immersive learning experiences, generates greater direct patient care time in the dedicated patient care setting, improves retention, and results in more satisfied APPs, managers, and attending physicians. Further research will measure the long-term benefits of the CC bootcamp methodology and if this impacts knowledge retention.