Progressive care residency program
LaDonna Christy, Jo-Anne Senneff and Shedrick Kennedy
Houston Methodist Hospital, USA
: J Nurs Patient Care
Abstract
Statement of the Problem: A Progressive Care Unit is a unit that bridges the patient care continuum between critical care and medical surgical care needs. The American Association for Critical Care Nurses (AACN) purport the need for progressive care units to serve the patient population whose needs fall along that of the less acute but have the potential to become unstable. In line with the AACN, educational requirements to work within these specialized units include a higher level of skill acquisition to prevent the moderately stable patient from transitioning to critically unstable. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Kolb’s experiential learning theory was used as the framework to develop an integrated learning program, incorporating cognitive, psychomotor and affective learning strategies. A two-day, 8-hour program was designed. The program included an interactive presentation and group work didactic, along with simulated common patient events that require critical thinking and intervention, discussion with the participants and debriefing performed by the educators. The learners that participated were graduate nurses working in progressive care setting at a metropolitan teaching hospital, nurses that currently work in progressive care at least one year or more and graduate nurses working in community hospital intensive care unit with lower acuity patients. Findings: Total of 244 participants completed the two-day program. The pre-questionnaire identified that 50-65% of the participants had minimal knowledge of hemodynamics and treatable medications associated with working in a progressive care unit. The post survey stated that participants increased comprehension of topics at a mean of 88.45%. Conclusion & Significance: Incorporating specialized training program for the graduate/new nurse transition to practice in a progressive care unit may improve the new nurse graduate’s/new nurse’s competence, ultimately effecting patient outcomes.
Biography
LaDonna Christy has over 14 years of professional nursing experience including clinical practice and leadership at Houston Methodist Hospital, Texas Medical Center. In her role as a Nursing Program Leader with a concentration in critical and progressive care, she provides program development to improve the aspect of care in the critically ill setting. She is currently working on developing a simulation based hemodynamic course that is 90% interactive and 10% instruction.
E-mail: lychristy@houstonmethodist.org
