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Workforce

Two-Hour Concurrent Session

Clinician-to-Patient Ratios in the ICU: What’s the Magic Number?

Monday, April 18, 2022

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM US CST

CE: 1.0

Concurrent Session Moderator(s)

April Kapu, ACNP, DNP, RN, DNP

Associate Dean, Clinical and Community Partnerships
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Nashville, Tennessee

No relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose

A foundational aspect of high-quality critical care is the use of multidisciplinary healthcare teams that leverage the specialized training of each respective discipline. Evidence continues to demonstrate that the use of multidisciplinary critical care teams improves clinical outcomes. The level of clinician staffing in the ICU correlates to patient outcomes and medical errors. It is clear that medical errors are independently associated with worse outcomes. However, the optimal clinician-to-patient ratio needed to derive the benefits of this team-based approach and optimize safety is unknown. This session will feature a multidisciplinary panel who will communicate the synthesis of current evidence on optimization of clinician-to-patient ratio for each discipline to educate ICU clinicians unfamiliar with these data and to spur the implementation of evidence-based clinician-to-patient ratios in their ICUs.

Learning Objectives:

Explain the importance of establishing optimal pharmacist-to-patient staffing ratios in the ICU
Describe key factors involved in determining the optimal allied healthcare professional-to-patient ratio in an intensive care practice setting
Discuss the ideal nurse-to-patient ratio in the ICU and effects on patient outcomes
Suggest an optimal physician assistant/nurse practitioner-to-patient ratio in the ICU
Review safety concerns that may arise if ICU physicians are overburdened with patient load

Presentations:

Not so Ancillary: Advocating for Adequate Allied Healthcare Professional Staffing
Concurrent Session Faculty: Ashley D. DePriest, LD, MS, RD, CNSC – Wellstar Health System
What’s the Right RaNge? Patient-to-RN Ratios in the ICU
Concurrent Session Faculty: Daleen Penoyer, PhD, RN, CCRP – Orlando Health
The Tip of the Iceberg: Is the Physician-to-Patient Ratio the Full Picture?
Concurrent Session Faculty: J. Christopher Farmer, MD, MCCM – Mayo Clinic