Neuro cases may be intimidating, but the use of case studies helps make a session on the topic less intimidating.
"We've done case studies at NTI and people ask for more," said DaiWai M. Olson, a professor at University of Texas Southwestern. He is joined by Mary Kay Bader, a neuro ICU nurse at Providence Mission Hospital; and Sarah L. Livesay, associate dean at the College of Nursing at Rush University. They and Olson will co-lead "Twilight Zone: Neuro Cases Out of This World" on Tuesday.
The three presenters are experts on neuro, particularly on what an ICU nurse may encounter. Bader began to specialize in 1983. "It's a fascinating specialty. It's where you can take anatomy and correlate your exam. You see something and already liken it to where the abnormality is in the brain. If nurses don't pick up the changes when the patient is deteriorating, there are grave consequences."
Livesay worked in neuro on an ICU night shift in the 1980s. "I can remember my faculty saying, 'You got a job in neuro. Stay a year and move on to a better [type of] ICU.' "I started in neuro and never left." Now, she's the one always up to teach a course on neuro at Rush.
They bring their years of experience to the session's cases, which are "really unusual and interesting," Livesay said. "It teaches a spirit of inquiry. Even though we're talking about really unusual cases, nursing implications and nursing care, it's pretty straightforward. We're talking about cases they may not see, but these are take-home messages that are meaningful."
While neuro cases may be unfamiliar to many critical care nurses, they have an important role, Bader said. "It's a journey to show how the clinical team – how nurses with their continuing assessment and reassessment – can influence the trajectory of that case."