Development of postgraduate training in critical care medicine for nurse practitioners and physician assistants. 2021

Christine Y Zhou, and Vikas Pathak
Department of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PA) are increasingly providing care to the critically ill patients in the intensive care unit. We structured a 4-month training program for our existing NPs and PAs and assessed their knowledge and skill pre and post training. The program was composed of blended didactic in critical care medicine topics, critical care simulations in simulation laboratory, and supervised critical care procedures. Formal knowledge and skill assessments were performed before and after the program to assess success in meeting predefined learning objectives. The mean preintervention medical knowledge assessment score was 3.37 ± 0.56 SD, which significantly improved to 3.86 ± 0.46 SD (p < .00001). For clinical skills for critical care procedures, the mean preintervention score was 3.10 ± 0.86 SD, which improved to 3.61 ± 0.92 SD (p < .00001). The overall knowledge (including medical knowledge and clinical skills) improved from mean 3.30 ± 0.86 SD to 3.80 ± 0.42 SD. The improvement was seen regardless of the duration of experience in critical care medicine. We concluded that structured didactics with supervised procedural training along with dedicated training in simulation laboratories, even for a short period, improves the overall knowledge and clinical skills required to work in a critical care setting.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D007362 Intensive Care Units Hospital units providing continuous surveillance and care to acutely ill patients. ICU Intensive Care Units,Intensive Care Unit,Unit, Intensive Care
D009722 Nurse Practitioners Nurses who are specially trained to assume an expanded role in providing medical care under the supervision of a physician. Nurse Practitioner,Practitioner, Nurse,Practitioners, Nurse
D010823 Physician Assistants Health professionals who practice medicine as members of a team with their supervising physicians. They deliver a broad range of medical and surgical services to diverse populations in rural and urban settings. Duties may include physical exams, diagnosis and treatment of disease, interpretation of tests, assist in surgery, and prescribe medications. (from http://www.aapa.orglabout-pas accessed 2114/2011) Doctor's Assistant,Feldsher,Feldshers,Physician Assistant,Physicians' Assistants,Physicians' Extender,Physicians' Extenders,Doctor's Assistants,Assistant, Doctor's,Assistant, Physicians',Assistants, Doctor's,Assistants, Physician,Assistants, Physicians',Doctor Assistant,Doctor Assistants,Doctors Assistant,Extender, Physicians',Extenders, Physicians',Physician Extender,Physician Extenders,Physician's Assistants,Physician's Extender,Physician's Extenders,Physicians Assistants,Physicians Extender,Physicians' Assistant
D002983 Clinical Competence The capability to perform acceptably those duties directly related to patient care. Clinical Skills,Competence, Clinical,Clinical Competency,Clinical Skill,Competency, Clinical,Skill, Clinical,Skills, Clinical,Clinical Competencies,Competencies, Clinical
D003422 Critical Care Health care provided to a critically ill patient during a medical emergency or crisis. Intensive Care,Intensive Care, Surgical,Surgical Intensive Care,Care, Critical,Care, Intensive,Care, Surgical Intensive
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man

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