AACN participates in the development, review and endorsement of new research that impacts critical care nurses, patients and families.
American Heart Association COVID-19 Resuscitation Guidance
An AACN liaison participated in the American Heart Association’s review of the most current CDC recommendations along with resuscitation education and literature on COVID-19 and cardiac arrest. As a result of the review, no changes will be made to the “2022 Interim Guidance to Health Care Providers for Basic and Advanced Cardiac Life Support in Adults, Children, and Neonates With Suspected or Confirmed COVID-19.”
November 2022
New Accreditation Standards for CAMTS
AACN attended a board meeting with the Commission on Accreditation of Medical Transport Systems (CAMTS) to discuss the new CAMTS 12th Edition Accreditation Standards. The new standards go into effect on January 1, 2023 and require transport-specific certification for all transport nurses.
October 2022
Pressure Injury Prevention
An AACN liaison attended the annual 2022 National Pressure Injury Prevention Council conference, themed “Pressure Injuries — Quality Approaches to Complex Problems.” The event included sessions aimed to provide health care providers with the tools necessary to leverage technology to improve pressure injury identification, develop and implement skin care standards and improve patient engagement.
March 2022
Structural Inequity in the Emergency Department
An AACN liaison and board director virtually attended the National Institute of Nursing Research’s Nursing Research Roundtable, which explored structural inequity, social determinants of health, holistic care planning and personal focused care in the Emergency Department setting.
March 2022
Setting the Standard for COVID-19 Resuscitation
An AACN liaison joined the COVID-19 guidance subgroup of the American Heart Association’s Emergency Cardiovascular Committee. The subgroup will review evolving COVID-19 literature, then direct and set standards for resuscitation of patients in cardiac arrest.
March 2022
CCSC Letter on Pulse Oximeters Inaccuracies
AACN and other members of the Critical Care Societies Collaborative (CCSC) urged the FDA to direct developers and manufacturers of FDA-regulated pulse oximeters to test all devices for accurate and reliable readings for patients with diverse degrees of skin pigmentation. This letter addresses continuing concerns about potential inaccuracies of pulse oximetry in people with darker skin tones.
February 2022
ENA Summit on APRN Practice
AACN attended the third in a series of meetings to address the role of APRNs in the Emergency Department. Practice standards from the American Academy of Emergency Nurse Practitioners (AAENP) and core competencies from the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) were used to develop the 2021 Emergency Nurse Practitioner Competencies.
February 2022
Healthcare Worker Resources for COVID-19
AACN attended the quarterly National Hospital Preparedness Partner Community meeting. The office of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response website was updated to reflect COVID-19 resources for healthcare workers and countermeasures to enhance health security.
February 2022
Pressure Injury Review Committee
An AACN Clinical Practice Specialist became a Standards Review Committee Member on the Education Committee for the National Advisory Panel. Work in this area positively impacts pressure injury prevention and treatment strategies through the development and dissemination of educational resources.
December 2021
New International Recommendations on Emergency Cardiac Care
An AACN liaison joined the American Heart Association’s Emergency Cardiovascular Committee meeting to review new international recommendations on Emergency Cardiac Care. This is the fifth summary of the Resuscitation International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Science with Treatment Recommendations.
October 2021
Technical Expertise for CMS Definitions
Former board president and AACN liaison attended the Technical Expert Panel to collaborate on CMS definitions, electronic clinical quality measures and code sets for falls leading to injury, postoperative respiratory failure and postoperative venous thromboembolism.
July 2021
Sepsis Outcome Measures
ACCN attended the Center for Medicare and Medicaid IMPAQ Technical Expert Panel to review sepsis mortality data, CMS definitions and coding errors and implications.
May 2021
Using Data to Explore Health Inequities and Social Determinants of Health
AACN attended the National Nursing Research Roundtable to discuss how electronic health record data mining can be used to inform interventions to reduce health inequities and to promote research that considers social needs in order to reduce health inequities.
March 2021
Adaptive Learning Platform for BLS and ALS
AACN attended an American Heart Association’s Emergency Cardiac Care Committee meeting to discuss an adaptive learning platform using e-simulation that provides a personalized learning path that adapts to the learner’s performance. Heartcode classes coming in 2021.
October 2020
New Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Guidelines Published
AACN reviewed and endorsed the updated American Heart Association cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidelines that include caregiver safety aspects. This revision emphasizes early initiation by lay rescuers, early administration of epinephrine, real-time audio-visual feedback, physiological monitoring of CPR quality, care and support in recovery and debriefings for rescuers.
October 2020
Decreasing Disparities in Bystander CPR
AACN attended the American Heart Association plenary and subcommittee meetings to help identify biases and barriers in education, revise algorithm presentation using science education, and explore adaptive learning strategies.
July 2020
Expectations for Implementing Medication Titration Orders
AACN worked with The Joint Commission for several months to clarify its medication management standard, which delineates required hospital policies for medication orders, including titrated medications. A director with TJC, Dr. Campbell explains in this video how interpretation of these requirements allows for application of nursing judgement and provides a mechanism to simplify documentation using block charting.
June 2020
Antibiotic Stewardship in the Intensive Care Unit
AACN, the American Thoracic Society, American College of Chest Physicians, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Society of Critical Care Medicine have collaborated on a report to specifically address barriers to antibiotic stewardship in the intensive care unit and tactics to overcome them.
May 2020
AACN Advocates for Accelerated Production of PPE
AACN implores the Federal government to take all available actions to accelerate the mass production and coordinated distribution of PPE and life-saving equipment to healthcare facilities nationwide.
April 2020
Joint Statement of the Critical Care Societies Collaborative on Social Distancing
Critical care organizations who are caring for patients infected with COVID-19 are urging federal, state and local officals to continue or initiate social distancing practices to slow the progress of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public adherence to social distancing is the best option if we are to have adequate capacity in the U.S. healthcare system to effectively treat patients.
March 2020
Consensus Statement on Multiple Patients Per Ventilator
Together with other national healthcare associations, we've signed a consensus statement advising clinicians that sharing mechanical ventilators cannot be done safely with current equipment. Ventilating multiple patients with COVID‐19 using the same ventilator could lead to poor patient outcomes and high mortality rates for all patients cohorted.
March 2020
Telemedicine Guidelines From American Nurses Association
AACN contributed comments to the public review of the American Nurses Association's "Core Principles on Connected Health."
September 2018
The Joint Commission
AACN representatives attended The Joint Commission’s 2018 Health Care Association Forum, which covered suicide prevention, a stronger focus on patient safety, how to link healthy work environments with a safety culture, the opioid crisis and antibiotic resistance.
August 2018
Quality Palliative Care Guidelines
AACN reviewed and endorsed the National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care’s, “Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care, 4th edition,” which seeks to improve access to quality palliative care for all people with serious illness, regardless of setting, diagnosis, prognosis or age.
August 2018
Pain, Agitation/Sedation, Delirium, Immobility and Sleep Disruption Guidelines
After review, AACN endorsed the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s “Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Prevention and Management of Pain, Agitation/Sedation, Delirium, Immobility, and Sleep Disruption in Adult Patients in the ICU,” which built upon the 2013 version by adding sleep and mobilization to the topics covered.
July 2018
Clinician Well-Being
AACN’s chief clinical officer represented the association at the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience, in Washington, D.C.
May 2018
Ultrasound to Guide Vascular Access Procedures
AACN reviewed and provided comments on the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine’s updated “Practice Parameter for the Use of Ultrasound to Guide Vascular Access Procedures.”
May 2018
Safer Medication Administration
AACN subject matter experts participated in the Standardize 4 Safety Initiative, a multiyear interprofessional project to standardize medication concentrations with the goal of reducing errors and improving transitions of care. The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), recipient of a three-year FDA grant, is collaborating with partner organizations, hospitals, pharmacists, nurses and physician experts to create, test, publicize and support the adoption of national standardized medication concentrations.
November 2015 - August, 2017
Critical Care World Congress
This annual congress is co-hosted by the World Federation of Societies of Intensive Care Medicine, World Federation of Critical Care Nurses and World Federation of Pediatric and Critical Care Societies. AACN attended the 2017 congress in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the 2016 congress in Brisbane, Australia, and the 2015 Congress in Seoul, Korea.
September 2017
Guidelines for Targeted Temperature Management
AACN reviewed and endorsed “The Implementation of Targeted Temperature Management: An Evidence-Based Guideline from the Neurocritical Care Society.” This guideline is targeted specifically to neurocritical care clinicians who have chosen to use targeted temperature management in patient care.
August 2017
Incident Management of Infectious Disease Outbreaks
After peer review, AACN endorsed the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America’s “Outbreak Response and Incident Management: SHEA Guidance and Resources for Healthcare Epidemiologists in United States Acute-Care Hospitals.” This document was developed to help provide healthcare epidemiologists working in acute care hospitals with a high-level overview of incident management for infectious disease outbreaks and to prepare them to work within an emergency response framework.
August 2017
SCCM Surviving Sepsis Pediatric Guidelines
An AACN liaison and expert in bedside critical care pediatric nursing served on this national panel to develop neonatal and pediatric sepsis guidelines.
July 2017
American Heart Association’s Updated Electrocardiographic Monitoring Standards
After review, AACN endorsed the American Heart Association’s “Update to Practice Standards for Electrocardiographic Monitoring in Hospital Settings: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.” These standards provide an interprofessional, comprehensive review of evidence and recommendations for indications, duration and implementation of continuous ECG monitoring of hospitalized patients.
July 2017
Nursing Infection Control Education Network
AACN worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Nurses Association and 19 other specialty organizations to present webinars, live training sessions and web-based information to empower nurses to respond to highly contagious diseases and to protect themselves and their patients.
February 2017
Preventable Healthcare Harm
AACN endorsed the National Patient Safety Foundation’s call to action, “Preventable Health Care Harm Is a Public Health Crisis and Patient Safety Requires a Coordinated Public Health Response.”
February 2017
Family-Centered Care Guidelines
After review, AACN endorsed the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s “Guidelines for Family-Centered Care in the Neonatal, Pediatric, and Adult ICU.”
January 2017
Moral Distress/Moral Resilience
AACN participated in and provided speakers for the Symposium on Moral Distress/Moral Resilience at Johns Hopkins University.
August 2016
The Antibiotic Stewardship Team Redefined
Direct-care nurse volunteers from AACN participated in a two-year project with the CDC and ANA examining the importance of the nurses’ role in antibiotic stewardship. Live and online work group discussions resulted in a collaborative 2017 white paper, “Redefining the Antibiotic Stewardship Team: Recommendations from the American Nurses Association/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Workgroup on the Role of Registered Nurses in Hospital Antibiotic Stewardship Practices,” educational webinars and a toolkit.
July 2015 - August 2016
Technology Use and Patient Safety
Volunteers representing AACN attended a two-day interprofessional summit to discuss strategies related to alarm management, technology and patient safety. This summit was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation Foundation's National Coalition for Alarm Management Safety. This activity spawned work groups to develop strategies to address issues associated with complex technology that may have the potential to threaten positive patient outcomes.
July 2016
Definitions of Sepsis and Septic Shock
AACN provided comments and endorsed the Society of Critical Care Medicine/European Society of Intensive Care Medicine’s “The Third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock.”
February 2016
Outcomes After Critical Illness
An AACN subject matter expert participated in a multiyear collaborative with Johns Hopkins University and other researchers and practitioners examining outcome measurements for patients experiencing acute respiratory distress syndrome and acute respiratory failure. The article, “Core Outcome Measures for Clinical Research in Acute Respiratory Failure Survivors. An International Modified Delphi Consensus Study,” was published in 2017 and is recommended for use in research involving survivors of acute respiratory failure.
January 2016
Bystander Response to Catastrophic Events
AACN was invited by the National Security Council at the White House for roundtable discussions on bystanders’ response to catastrophic events. The purpose was to bring together healthcare, public health, public safety, emergency management, fire service, emergency medical management and law enforcement organizations to identify and disseminate actions and tools that the public can use to save lives and build resilience against immediate life-threatening illnesses and injuries, with a focus on bleeding control.
October 2015
End-of-Life Care in Hospitals
In response to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ruling for reimbursement of advance care planning, AACN joined this initiative and advocacy opportunity hosted by The Hastings Center and the Society of Hospital Medicine
July 2015
Potential Organ Donor Management in ICU
AACN has endorsed “Management of the Potential Organ Donor in the ICU: Society of Critical Care Medicine/American Association of Chest Physicians/Association of Organ Procurement Consensus Statement.”
June 2015