AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy

Nurses Transforming Healthcare Through Innovation

AACN believes direct care nurses are critical drivers in creating lasting change that optimizes quality indicators and, ultimately, transforms healthcare. Imagine decreasing hospital-acquired conditions, delirium and other adverse events as well as and improving retention, turnover and the health of the work environment just by having nurses — the care providers on the front line with patients — develop innovative solutions.

AACN CSI Academy aims to provide nurses with the knowledge, skills and support to lead their peers in creating unit-based change that is easily scaled for maximum impact. Their powerful results clearly show the return on investment of empowering nurses at the bedside.

AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy is a hospital-based, experiential nurse leadership and innovation training program designed to empower direct care nurses as clinician leaders and change agents whose initiatives measurably improve patient, staffing and fiscal outcomes.

At its core, AACN CSI Academy leverages nurses’ expertise to enhance patient care and their work environment, expanding that expertise with additional leadership skills gained through education, coaching and mentoring.

Unit-based teams of nurses immediately apply their learning by identifying priority patient-care or professional challenges, then developing, implementing and evaluating solutions that result in quantifiable improvements.

AACN Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy is a unit-based program using implementation science to leverage direct care nurses’ expertise and build additional skills, preparing and supporting them as clinician leaders who effect positive changes that improve patient, nurse and hospital outcomes.

CSI Academy utilized its proven nurse innovation program to support teams of direct care nurses to lead innovative change projects to improve the health of the work environment in their units.

Unlike other quality-focused programs, AACN CSI Academy goes beyond offering tools and processes by using implementation science as a framework for teaching the theory and practice of creating and sustaining positive change. CSI Academy curriculum consists of content delivered in an experiential learning environment, including on-site and virtual workshops, online education activities and faculty consultations.