Current Issues and Topics

AACN staff is available to comment on any of the issues and topics listed here. To reach an AACN spokesperson, please contact Kristie Aylett, (228) 229-9472, kristie.aylett@aacn.org. 

General topic areas in clinical practice

• New developments, advancements or updates on nursing care, treatments or procedures
• Cutting-edge medical or surgical therapies
• Nursing shortage
• Patient-focused staffing approach
• Evidence-based practice
• Best practices for acute and critical care conditions
• Critical care pharmacology
• New diagnostic tests
• Advances in any form of patient monitoring
• Nursing care of patients with specific critical care health problems
• Care of the critically ill obstetric and postpartum patient
• Providing critical care nursing services in nontraditional care sites such as ambulatory care, community and home care settings
• Multidisciplinary collaboration in managing patient care
• Care plans, critical pathways and patient care protocols for critical care
• Point-of-care testing

Academic education

• Preparing and supporting staff to serve as preceptors for students
• Instructional resources in critical care nursing for academic educators

Advanced practice

• Differential diagnosis of acute and critical care conditions
• Treatment practices and differences for various acute care conditions
• Collaboration of advanced practice nurses with staff nurses, clinical nurse specialists, nurse managers, medical staff and allied health staff
• How to use advanced practice nurses effectively in critical care
• Acute care nurse practitioner issues, education, certification and reimbursement

AIDS

• Advances in understanding and treating people with AIDS

Cardiovascular

• Hemodynamic monitoring; arterial, noninvasive blood pressure, cardiac output, pulmonary artery pressure
• Telemetry and progressive care aspects
• Intra-aortic balloon pump and left ventricular-assist devices
• Advances in management of acute myocardial infarction
• Management of acute and chronic heart failure
• Use of vasoactive drips, inotropic support, thrombolytic therapy

Cardiovascular surgery

• Chest tubes and drains
• Femoral sheaths
• Updates on new surgical procedures

Complementary therapies

• Spirituality in critical care nursing
• Creating a healing environment
• Complementary therapies used with the critically ill

Cultural diversity

• Responding effectively to cultural aspects of patient and family care
• Minimizing language barriers
• Dealing with diversity issues among staff

ECGs and pacemakers

• Advanced ECG interpretation
• Advanced pacemaker rhythms

Ethics

• Advocacy and moral agency
• Advance directives
• Code of ethics
• Cultural diversity
• End of life
• Family-centered care
• Informed consent
• Moral distress
• Patients' rights
• Palliative care
• Religion/spirituality

Geriatrics

• Special needs and tailoring care for the elderly patient
• Restraint policies and procedures

Immunology

• Immunosuppression
• Advances in understanding immune system disorders
• Managing anaphylactic reactions and immunologic emergencies

Infection control

• Antibiotic-resistant organisms

Management

• Case management and critical pathways for specific patient populations
• Mentoring programs
• Staffing; patient acuity/classification systems, floating, using registry staff, optimal staffing ratios and skill mix, staffing policies, work schedules and shifts
• Programs that assure seamless continuity of patient care
• Coping with mergers, redesigns and downsizing
• Patient admission and discharge criteria, especially for telemetry and progressive/subacute care units
• Guidelines for supervision and delegation of tasks to unlicensed assistive personnel: resolving problems with delegation
• Legal aspects of delegation, supervision and assignment acceptance
• Programs that enable staff to do more with fewer resources (innovative ways to work smarter)
• Coping with increased managerial scope of responsibility
• Outcomes management and research

Neonatal

• Unique needs of the neonate
• Managing neonatal emergencies
• Resources for neonatal nurses on specific patient populations
• Neonatal transport
• Supporting parents and siblings of neonates

Neurologic

• Sedation and pain management; sedation scales
• Neurotrauma
• Acute care of the patient with stroke
• Monitoring and managing increased intracranial pressure

Nutrition

• Nutritional issues in the critically ill

Pediatrics

• Unique needs of the pediatric critical care patient
• Managing pediatric emergencies
• Resources for pediatric critical care nurses
• Supporting parents and siblings of pediatric patients

Postanesthesia recovery

• Recovering critically ill patients from anesthesia
• Managing postanesthesia recovery emergencies

Psychiatric issues

• Recognizing and managing psychiatric problems in the critically ill
• Managing the patient with substance abuse
• Psychiatric complications in the critically ill
• Dealing with dysfunctional families

Pulmonary

• Advances in the care of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)
• Managing patients on various forms of mechanical ventilation
• Suctioning protocols and procedures

Staff Development

• Healthy work environment and standards
• Assessing and developing staff competency
• Effective and efficient orientation programs
• Competency-based orientation programs
• Effective cross-training programs
• Patient and family education programs
• Educational impact of hospital mergers and restructuring

Toxicology

• Understanding the pathophysiology of toxic ingestion
• Protocols and algorithms for managing toxic ingestion

Transplantation

• Advances in organ and tissue transplantation
• New pharmacologic therapies for the transplant patient

Trauma

• Multisystem trauma
• Neurotrauma
• Emergency care of the trauma patient
• Interfacility transport