Essentials of Critical Care Orientation

Successfully onboard your progressive and critical care nurses with Essentials of Critical Care Orientation (ECCO), an award-winning online orientation program that provides your nurses with consistent training and knowledge to confidently achieve optimal outcomes for patients.
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What is ECCO?

ECCO is a new approach to remote training, featuring up-to-date, interactive and evidence-based education that easily blends into your existing orientation plans.

Hospital and Institutional Pricing
Learn about pricing and how to place an order
Free 14-day Trial
Available for hospitals and institutions only
Individual Purchase
For nurses seeking to advance or refresh their skill set independently

The ECCO Difference

AACN’s 24/7 customer support, comprehensive reports and progress tracking tools make implementation straightforward.

The ECCO Difference

  • Successful Completion

  • Safe Patient Care

  • Increased Knowledge

  • Nurse Confidence

ECCO’s modular design lets you tailor the course to your unit or individual nurse’s needs. Continuing education hours are provided at the assignment level to provide flexibility and support for your nurses’ training.

Didactic content is taught through real-life patient scenarios. This results in more time for blended learning application and simulation opportunities, which helps support the delivery of safe patient care.

ECCO's real-life patient scenarios mimic the practice environment, while knowledge check questions tests with feedback enhance retention of content.

ECCO's content was peer-reviewed by over 300 progressive and critical care nursing experts, ensuring proven education that easily blends into orientation plans and your nurses’ practice.

We use ECCO because we are a small regional facility with a small ICU patient population, without a clinical nurse specialist, and with limited learning opportunities for orienting nurses for SCU and cross training our med-surg staff to the SCU.

Sara Morris, Allina Health System

If all nursing schools had this approach to learning, we would all be very prepared after school.

Godfred Essim, NYU Langone Hospital

With ECCO, I know that all the new staff have the same foundational information. It helps tailor our simulation experiences…

Joan L. Scherrer MSN, RN, CCRN, Clinical Practice Coordinator

The online courses help give RNs new to the critical care areas the basic knowledge necessary to function in our high-acuity unit.

Maureen Bishop MSN, RN, CCNS, CCRN, Clinical Nurse Specialist – CCU/ICU/PCU

How to Implement ECCO

Learn how to seamlessly integrate ECCO into your orientation plan.

Find Your Scenario

Up to 75.45 Hours of Learning

Online and interactive case-based content features virtual application, multimedia elements and knowledge checks designed to ensure learner engagement and provide learning outcomes that last.

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Course Content

Customizable experiences allow you to enroll your nurses in either the intensive care unit (ICU) or progressive care unit (PCU) track to ensure content is pertinent to their practice. After completing the course, learners will:

  1. Identify evidence-based care strategies to prevent healthcare-associated infections and complications.
  2. Demonstrate knowledge of common conditions experienced by acutely ill patients requiring critical care or progressive care nursing.
  3. Evaluate assessment data and determine priority interventions for patients with acute or critical illness.
  4. Anticipate potential complications and take steps to prevent them.
  5. Assess the effectiveness of interventions for patients experiencing acute or critical illness.
Review Course Content and Tracks

AACN offers the following resources:

ECCO Community
Providing educators a platform to discuss and share best practices regarding their orientation plans.
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Customer Support
Sales Support and Technical Support
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On the Blog
Read about topics important to nurse managers and educators.
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AACN Knowledge Assessment Tool
Digitally identify knowledge gaps and educational needs of new nurses, then enhance skills with ECCO.
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Get Started

Achieve your onboarding goals with consistent online training and education.
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Course Details Handout
Learning Management Systems
ROI Brochure
Technical Requirements
FAQs

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation, ANCC Provider Number 0012. AACN has been approved as a provider of continuing education in nursing by the California Board of Registered Nursing (CBRN), Provider number CEP 1036. This activity is approved for up to 75.45 contact hours. This CE activity expires on July 1, 2026.

AACN programming meets the standards of most states that require mandatory CE contact hours for license and/or certification renewal. AACN recommends consulting with your state board of nursing or credentialing organization before submitting CE to fulfill continuing education requirements.