The goal of the practice alerts is to help nurses and other health care practitioners carry their bold voices to the bedside to directly impact patient care. Practice alerts are succinct, dynamic directives from AACN that are supported by authoritative evidence to ensure excellence in practice and a safe and humane work environment.
The topics will address both nursing and multidisciplinary activities of importance to acute and critically ill patients or their environments. As the undisputed voice of critical care, AACN will issue practice alerts to:
Close research/practice gap
Provide guidance
Standardize practice
Identify/inform about new advances/trends
Practice Alerts are short directives designed for easy reference. The first part of the Practice Alert is the clinical information followed by references to support the clinical statements. The Practice Alerts may have materials available for you to use to assist with staff education or performance improvement activities.
Additional Practice Alerts will be added as warranted, based on why AACN issues Practice Alerts. Recognizing that practice is dynamic the Practice Alerts will be reviewed and updated to reflect any research based changes.
Email pamela.shellner@aacn.org to let us know if this format is useful. Please put Practice Alerts in the subject line.
Oral Care in the Critically Ill - [PDF: 8/2006]
Noninvasive Blood Pressure Monitoring - [PDF: 6/2006]
Severe Sepsis - [PDF: 04/2006]
Deep Vein Thrombosis Prevention - [PDF: 12/2005]
Preventing Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infections - [PDF: 9/2005]
Verification of Feeding Tube Placement - [PDF: 5/2005]
Dye in Enteral Feedings - [PDF: 12/2009]
Family Presence During CPR and Invasive Procedures - [PDF: 11/2004]
ST Segment Monitoring - [Multiple Documents: 4/2008]
ST Segment Monitoring Practice Alert - [PDF: 5/2009]
ST Segment Monitoring Educational Presentation - [PPT: 4/2008]
ST Segment Audit Tool - [PDF: 4/2008]
Dysrhythmia Monitoring - [Multiple Documents: 4/2008]
Dysrhythmia Monitoring Practice Alert - [PDF: 4/2008]
Dysrhythmia Monitoring Educational Presentation - [PPT: 4/2008]
Electrode Placement & Lead Selection Audit Tool - [PDF: 4/2008]
Pulmonary Artery Pressure Measurement - [Multiple Documents: 12/2009]
PAP Practice Alert - [PDF: 12/2009]
PAP Measurement Educational Presentation - [PPT: 5/2004]
Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) - [Multiple Documents: 1/2008]
VAP Practice Alert - [PDF: 1/2008]
VAP Educational Presentation - [PPT: 1/2008]
Directions for Conducting Audits of HOB Elevation - [PDF: 1/2008]
Data Collection Tool for HOB Elevation - [XLS: 1/2008]
