Celebrate National Critical Care Awareness and Recognition Month

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National Critical Care Awareness and Recognition Month (NCCARM) has served as a catalyst to bring critical care teams closer together and has increased critical care familiarity and understanding for professional and community associates outside of critical care.

Each year, the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) offers tips on how to celebrate NCCARM. Many institutions use the opportunity to educate staff and unite them in a show of appreciation. Arranging speaking engagements to address hot topics in critical care can be beneficial not only to the entire multiprofessional critical care team but to other colleagues. Topics successfully presented have included patient safety, quality improvement and evidence-based critical care.

Let these highlighted events from Washington Hospital Center, Maimonides Medical Center and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System inspire you to create your own NCCARM celebration in May 2008.

Washington Hospital Center
Washington Hospital Center hosted an extensive celebration that included an educational session on patient safety and a NCCARM proclamation from the mayor of the District of Columbia. “Receiving the proclamation went off seamlessly and only required a couple phone calls. The mayor was receptive and seemed excited to do it,” said George Sample, MD, an attending physician at the hospital who helped organize the effort. “However, the real highlight was the lunch-and-learn presentation.”

Nurses from Washington Hospital Center’s surgical critical care division hosted Bring It On: Campaigning Patient Safety. The session focused on the importance of creating a healthy and safe work environment in the intensive care unit (ICU). The Society encourages promotion of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ (AACN) Standards for Establishing and Sustaining Healthy Work Environments as part of NCCARM celebrations. The Bring It On session empowered attendees to use their voices to speak on behalf of patients. “Not with my patient,” became the refrain from the standing room-only crowd of nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists and pharmacists. “We bared our souls and had confessionals,” said Lisa Hawksworth, RN, MSN, CCRN, head nurse of the surgical ICU at Washington Hospital Center. “It was an open and informative session. We talked about what went wrong in the care of particular patients and what we could have done differently to improve their care.”

Another highlight was guest speaker William Brock, MD, FCCM, from Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in Virginia. He discussed quality improvement in the ICU during a special surgical grand rounds. Washington Hospital Center also observed “Wear Blue Day,” hosted ICU tours, and prepared displays that highlighted critical care. “The time we put in on critical care month was entirely worth the effort,” said Dr. Sample. “Our celebration was a huge success and the beginning of great things to come for critical care at our hospital. The staff really liked showing what they do.”

Maimonides Medical Center
Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn also used NCCARM as an opportunity to bring in a well-respected speaker on evidence-based critical care. Michael A. Gropper, MD, PhD, addressed current practices and controversies in critical care. Dr. Gropper is professor and vice chairman of the department of anesthesia and perioperative care, director of critical care medicine and professor of physiology at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. Dr. Gropper was invited because of his ability to relate to the entire multiprofessional team. “He has an exceptional talent for translating outcomes from clinical trials to bedside applications,” explained Richard H. Savel, MD, associate director of surgical intensive care unit at Maimonides Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine.

“It was clear the talk went over well. The crowd was enthusiastic and asked a lot of questions,” he said. Bringing in an outside speaker not only extends networks and builds relationships, but it also generates more interest by providing a fresh perspective. “NCCARM allowed us to share the multiprofessional approach with others who may not know how an ICU really functions,” Dr. Savel said.

Virginia Commonwealth University Health System
VCU Health System implemented the intensivist model just three years ago. NCCARM was the perfect opportunity to showcase critical care and to create understanding among departments.  “Most people here are unaware of what an intensivist is or how the model works. Our celebration gave us a chance to educate administrators and other hospital groups about how the multiprofessional critical care team works together to save lives. We also were able to recognize and thank the team members,” said Michael Czekajlo, MD, assistant professor of anesthesiology at the VCU Health System in Richmond. The VCU critical care team hung a NCCARM banner over the medical center’s main walkway. They gave out buttons, posters and mugs and observed "Go Blue Day." A press release downloaded from the SCCM Web site also was published in the hospital newsletter. “Next year we will have educational lectures about critical care, intensivists and the critical care team, while making efforts to reach out into the community,” said Dr. Czekajlo.

Start planning now for your own National Critical Care Awareness and Recognition Month celebration. Click here or call +1 847 827-6888 for more tips and
resources.

The following people were recognized for their efforts in NCCARM celebrations: Lisa Hawksworth, RN, MSN, CCRN, head nurse, surgical ICU, Washington Hospital Center; Anne Marie Madden, BS, RN, MS, MSN, director of critical care and emergency services, Washington Hospital Center; Andrea Ryan, RN, data coordinator for Project IMPACT, Washington Hospital Center; Herbert Lehman, MD, surgical ICU director, Maimonides Medical Center; and Yizhak Kupfer, MD, medical ICU director, Maimonides Medical Center.