At AACN, our goal is to help acute, progressive and critical care nurses stay at the forefront of healthcare. Our education and professional development resources are designed to meet your needs, providing you with expert knowledge and practical tools to deliver the highest-quality care.
The following collection represents the resources our community of nurses found most valuable in the past year. We’re confident you will find something to enhance your practice and optimize care of patients, families and yourself. Here’s to another year of taking on new challenges and reinvigorating a passion for nursing and lifelong learning!
Journal Articles
From bedside care to research, AACN’s nationally recognized journals present evidence-based clinical information and research, capturing the latest in acute, progressive and critical care nursing. Here are the most-read journal articles from 2024.
- Deimplementation of Gastric Residual Volume Monitoring to Enhance Patient Nutrition (Critical Care Nurse) – A quality improvement project replaced routine gastric residual volume monitoring with a focused nursing assessment to identify signs and symptoms of enteral feeding tolerance. This article discusses the results of the study, including the impact on nutrition delivery and nurses’ workflow.
- Hospital-Based Electrocardiographic Monitoring: The Good, the Not So Good, and Untapped Potential (American Journal of Critical Care) – While the real-time information provided by continuous electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring can have a positive impact on patient care, research in the past decade has highlighted the shortcomings and unanticipated consequences of these devices. In this article, a nurse scientist discusses her research on ECG and physiologic monitoring.
- Rise of the Virtual Nurse (AACN Advanced Critical Care) – As the process of providing healthcare becomes increasingly complex, the role of the virtual nurse has expanded. This article describes the ways in which virtual nursing has grown over the years and how it continues to adapt to support the nursing profession.
CE Activities
AACN’s continuing education (CE) library contains over 500 courses, articles and videos. These learning activities span a broad range of topics and specialties along the nursing career continuum. Your colleagues most often selected these five learning activities to earn CE contact hours and CERPs.
- Screening for Alcohol Use Disorder and Management of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome in Critical Care Patients (Critical Care Nurse) – This free online course provides an overview of a project that replaced subjective questionnaires with new tools designed to screen for alcohol use disorder and manage alcohol withdrawal syndrome in critical care patients.
- What to Know About Mechanical Circulatory Support in the Treatment of Cardiogenic Shock (NTI Recorded Session) – Cardiogenic shock is a life-threatening condition characterized by cardiac pump dysfunction. This session provides an expert review of mechanical circulatory support for right- and left-sided heart failure, including IABP, Impella, TandemHeart and ECMO in the management of refractory cardiogenic shock.
- Update of the Pharmacologic Management of Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (AACN Advanced Critical Care) – Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a subtype of hemorrhagic stroke associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Despite advances in early diagnosis and improvements in neurocritical care, the 90-day case-fatality rate of SAH remains close to 30%. This online course provides an overview of contemporary pharmacologic strategies to treat patients with aneurysmal SAH.
- Fluid Resuscitation and Sepsis Management in Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease or End-Stage Renal Disease: Scoping Review (American Journal of Critical Care) – Managing sepsis and fluid resuscitation in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) or end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is challenging for healthcare providers. This online course will help nurses understand the effect of fluid resuscitation on length of stay and other outcomes, as well as identify how fluid resuscitation could be improved in patients with CKD or ESRD during an episode of sepsis.
- Don't Give In, Just Breathe In (Community Sharing) – Using a multidisciplinary approach, a team decreased oxygen time by 477 minutes by increasing the usage of an incentive spirometer. This CE activity discusses the interventions, implementation, goals and outcomes of the change project.
Webinars
The AACN Critical Care Webinar Series presents the latest evidence-based learning and clinical practices in acute, progressive and critical care. These expert-led educational sessions put conceptual knowledge into practice, offering both knowledge and tools to enhance patient outcomes. The webinars are free to view and each offers up to 1.0 CE contact hour. These were the most viewed webinars in 2024:
- Demystifying ECMO: Patient Selection and Nursing Priorities – While the benefits of using ECMO are well documented, the therapy requires specialized training and expertise to implement it safely and effectively. This webinar provides the latest information and best practices for providing care to patients on ECMO.
- Creating and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments (HWEs) (Free CE) – Creating and maintaining a healthy work environment using AACN Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments: A Journey to Excellence helps nurses provide the highest quality of compassionate patient care while also being fulfilled at work. This webinar explores each of the six HWE standards and discusses how to conduct a free evaluation of your unit with the Healthy Work Environment Assessment Tool (HWEAT). It also provides a real-life case study illustrating how one unit used its HWEAT results to develop strategies that continue to improve the health of the workplace.
CSI Project
As an experiential nursing leadership and innovation program, AACN’s Clinical Scene Investigator (CSI) Academy provides nurses with the knowledge, skills and support to lead their peers in creating unit-based change. Participants develop and implement initiatives in their unit that address some of healthcare’s most challenging issues while measurably improving patient outcomes and hospital bottom lines. In 2024, your colleagues were most interested in the following CSI project:
- Hit a Handoff Homerun: Cover All the Bases – A cardiac surgery ICU lacked a standardized handoff routine for its specialized acute care population, contributing to post-handoff errors. To address these issues, the CSI team created a standardized handoff tool with an emphasis on safety checks. This summary provides an overview of the project, including how it improves continuity of care and builds an environment of safety and accountability.
Other Clinical Resources
AACN develops a wide range of content on topics including clinical, leadership, staffing and well-being, with a focus on providing essential clinical and educational resources to help you safely care for patients.
From blogs and podcasts to books and online courses, here are the resources your colleagues most engaged with in 2024:
- Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media Use for Nursing Professionals (Blog) - Nurses use social media every day, but very little education is offered on using it for professional purposes. This article discusses the benefits, risks and best practices for nursing professionals who use social media.
- Nursing Workload Tool to Assist With Unit Staffing (Nurse Story) – Kelsey Jones, BSN, RN, MEDSURG-BC, discusses the Patient Acuity Nursing Tool (PANT), which is used to support decisions about patient assignments and unit-level staffing grids across a health system’s 12 hospitals. In this article, Jones spoke with AACN Clinical Practice Specialist Sarah Delgado about how she developed PANT alongside data scientists, IT developers and a nurse scientist, as well as how other units can implement the tool.
- Clinical Voices - January 2024 - This issue includes articles on new red blood cell transfusion guidelines, nursing workload and patient safety in the ICU, reducing nurse educator burnout and more. Plus, a New Year's message from AACN President Terry Davis and a Q&A with a grateful NICU nurse.
- Embracing New Technology in Nursing (Podcast) - Tom Ahrens, NovEx's chief learning officer and an expert in critical care, discusses the integration of technology in nursing, with a strong emphasis on enhancing patient care and focusing on outcome-based research. In addition, he explores the evolving role of artificial intelligence in transforming the healthcare industry.
- Moral Distress (Clinical Resources Webpage) - Moral distress is a complex and challenging experience that can have a significant negative impact on the healthcare team — from hindering our ability to advocate for patients to leaving our job or the profession. AACN is committed to supporting nurses in managing moral distress and offers a collection of resources to help, including a free downloadable tool to learn more about recognizing and managing moral distress.
- AACN Procedure Manual for Progressive and Critical Care, 8th Ed. (Book) – This definitive reference represents the gold standard of care for procedures performed in progressive and critical care settings. It guides you through procedures common to the adult critical care environment, including those performed by advanced practice nurses, in an illustrated, step-by-step format.
- AACN Commonly Used IV Cardiac Medications for Adults Pocket Reference Card (Pocket Card) – This laminated pocket reference card contains information for nurses about commonly used vasoactive intravenous medications. Content includes the generic name, uses, therapeutic effects, adverse effects, the dose and half-life in adults and key considerations.
- Adult CCRN Certification Review Course Online - Individual Purchase (Certification Review Course) – This comprehensive online course provides the tools you need to confidently prepare for your acute/critical care nursing certification exam. It provides an in-depth review of all content areas covered in the most current CCRN Adult test plan, including detailed body systems topics as well as “Professional Caring and Ethical Practice” topics identified in the AACN Synergy Model for Patient Care.
- Essentials of ECG & Dysrhythmia Monitoring (Online Course) – Ideal for nurses working in critical care, progressive care or other areas where ECG monitoring is provided, this online course equips clinicians to identify cardiac rhythm changes, determine patient needs and respond quickly.