Yesterday's Aspirations are Today's Successes
Frederick P. Ognibene, MD, FCCM
President
Society of Critical Care Medicine
In looking back on my past Critical Connections columns, I found that education, collaboration and lifelong learning were common themes woven throughout most of my messages. These concepts are important within the context of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and within our daily multiprofessional practice in the intensive care unit (ICU). I will try to place these themes into a context to demonstrate how they relate to the progress and future vision of the Society. I hope you have utilized, or will be able to utilize, some of these programs, publications, initiatives and ideals to improve your daily practice.
Growing Educational Programs
The publication of Fundamental Critical Care Support, Fourth Edition this fall has been one of the highlights of my year as president of SCCM. The Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS) program is one of the keystones of SCCM’s educational portfolio, and the fourth edition textbook will enhance this program further. Every aspect of the textbook has been updated to reflect the most recent information on caring for the critically ill or injured patient. Chapters have been expanded and revised, and new appendices on simulation, medical emergency teams and airway adjuncts have been added. Additionally, the book has been reformatted to aid the flow of information, and the administrative binder and course have been revised to reflect the enhanced fourth edition. This marks an exciting new phase for FCCS and will further highlight the program as an educational staple within the United States and internationally. FCCS courses are conducted annually at more than 250 sites in more than 30 countries. Courses and materials are available in five different languages, and translated fourth editions will be available soon, including the planned addition of simplified Chinese and German translations.
In the same spirit, the Society has been concentrating on pushing its Fundamental Disaster Management course and developing the first edition of Pediatric Fundamental Critical Care Support. The SCCM release of several other new and notable publications this year included:
• The Injectable Drug Reference, Second Edition
• Improving the Quality of End-of-Life Care in the ICU: Interventions that Work (DVDROM)
• Self-Assessment in Multiprofessional Critical Care, 6th Edition
Successful Conferences
It has been an exciting year for the Society’s educational programs, which have been garnering positive feedback from attendees. The success of the Critical Care Congress in Orlando, Florida, last January was followed by the Clinical Focus conference in San Antonio, Texas. This program, which dealt with anemia, was the second installment of the new Clinical Focus series and received positive feedback from attendees. The Society plans to build on the momentum of this feedback with a third installment in September 2008 on the topic of venous thromboembolism. In addition to providing related educational programs and in keeping with its mission of collaboration, the Society also joined the newly formed Venous Disease Coalition, a network of professional and public nonprofit organizations aimed at increasing public and health professional awareness of this disease. The 6th Summer Conference in Intensive Care Medicine: Nutrition as a Therapeutic Agent to Improve Critical Care Outcomes enjoyed great success on many levels. Not only was it well attended and highly rated, it also marked the beginning a new partnership and attracted a diverse audience of healthcare professionals. The conference was held in Canada in conjunction with the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, the Canadian Critical Care Society, the Canadian Society for Clinical Nutrition and the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN). This was SCCM’s first collaboration with ASPEN and the start of a relationship that continues with the publication of jointly written nutrition-related guidelines and another planned conference on nutrition in critical illness, to be held next summer in Chicago as part of SCCM’s Critical Care Academy. The breadth of topics covered during the conference, complimented by the high-level faculty, attracted all members of the multiprofessional team, including many dieticians.
The Society is always striving to reach out to all members of the critical care team, and it was great to see a strong interest in the program by dieticians, who were very well represented in the overall attendance. The Society was proud to offer a program that supported their educational needs while providing a platform to reach out and collaborate with various other organizations with similar interests.
The Society expanded its Critical Care Academy program this year, offering a sold-out Rapid Response Team Training pre-course in addition to adult and pediatric multiprofessional review courses and the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Critical Care Self-Evaluation Process Module Review. The Rapid Response Team Training course was so well received during the Critical Care Academy that it will be repeated as a pre-course to the Pharmacotherapy in Critical Illness conference in March 2008 in Philadelphia. The 2008 Critical Care Academy in Chicago, Illinois, has also been expanded further. In addition to the board preparation courses and the abovementioned conference on nutritional therapies, it will also include a two-day pre-course on ultrasonography. This topic was developed after a member survey indicated strong interest. Importantly, the board review course participant feedback also was closely examined and a number of changes are being made to this long-running program to improve its content further. The Society is excited to provide a full five-day learning experience in one central location The Society’s continued success in providing well-attended conferences hinges on the quality of those programs and the ability of its volunteer members and staff to develop innovative and thought-provoking content, while ensuring adherence to the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) guidelines.
In 2006, the ACCME updated compliance criteria for accreditation elements. Criteria were grouped into three categories: continuing medical education mission, interventions
and provider learning, and improvement initiatives. To uphold the new requirements, the Society’s Education and Training Steering Committee, along with the SCCM Council, reviewed and revised SCCM’s continuing education mission statement. The revisions reinforce the continued drive to improve quality patient care through education. Content for educational programs now is viewed on a continuum of learning; knowledge, competence and performance have been integrated into the SCCM strategic mantra: Learn It, Deliver It, Measure It, and Improve It. These concepts already have emerged in several of the Society’s educational programs. The 6th Summer Conference in Intensive Care Medicine: Nutrition as a Therapeutic Agent to Improve Critical Care Outcomes featured interactive roundtable discussions. The audience had the opportunity to spend time with experts in discussions about key topics in nutrition for the critically ill and injured patient. Hands-on activities and pre-assessment tools also were added to various programs. Pre-assessment tools helped to determine the learning expectations of attendees. The response to this educational modality was outstanding, as speakers embraced the attendees’ comments and adapted presentations appropriately. The Society also has begun gathering quality information from program attendees with three- to six-month post-evaluation tools. These tools evaluate the participants’ abilities to incorporate concepts from the program into their daily practices. Survey questions focus on what was learned, how it was implemented into practice, and how it changed practice. Utilizing feedback from these surveys and evaluations will ensure that SCCM can continue to meet and exceed the expectations of conference participants, keep its stellar reputation for quality programming and carry out its mission of improving care for the critically ill and injured.
Building Strong Ties
In its effort to facilitate a discussion about how best to measure competencies and implement uniform training and accreditation programs in critical care, the Society hosted a conference in November with representatives from the Competency Based Training Program in Intensive Care Medicine for Europe (CoBaTrICE) project. This international European group sought the identification, refinement, adoption and support of a common core of critical care competencies. Representatives from the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education residency review committees, the American Thoracic Society, and the American College of Chest Physicians, as well as members from anesthesia and surgical accrediting boards, came together to learn how a common set of core competencies was established across multiple European nations and to share information and ideas on how this might be accomplished in the United States. The meeting was a great opportunity for SCCM to host this distinguished group for a project that may lead to improved training practices in the Untied States. Look for more details about this meeting in the February 2008 issue of Critical Connections.
Lifelong Learning
Last year, the Society launched several new Web sites and expanded its Web-based resources to deliver a superior online experience to its members. The launch included LearnICU.org, a resource housing the most current educational and clinical content to further the critical care community’s commitment to lifelong learning. Since its launch in January, LearnICU has grown to include eight clinical knowledge lines on various topics, including cardiac, hematology, renal and nutrition. Articles, podcasts, Webcasts and other resources related to these topics are now accessible from one location.
The American College of Critical Care Medicine’s latest guideline, “Clinical Practice Guidelines for Support of the Family in the Patient-Centered Intensive Care Unit,” also is available on LearnICU. This Web site grows each day as new content is harvested from a wide number of conferences, publications and other SCCM activities, while features and online tools are enhanced.
The Society also is looking forward to releasing its 100th iCritical Care Podcast soon, marking a milestone of innovation in this medium. In this special podcast, Richard Savel,MD, will give us an update on the latest guidelines from the American College of Critical Care Medicine. The most recent guideline for family support will be featured along with upcoming guidelines addressing end-of-life issues, sepsis and fever in the intensive care unit. The Society also continues to grow its pediatric podcasts, with Margaret Parker, MD, FCCM, conducting interviews with authors from Pediatric Critical Care Medicine. The Society was recognized for its innovation within this field with an Honorable Mention by the American Society of Association Executives Gold Circle Awards. The iCritical Care Podcasts continue to grow thanks to the dedicated volunteers who recognize the importance of this contemporary learning medium. Members of the Creative Community are invited to attend a leadership training event on Friday, February 1, 2008, one day prior to the start of the 37th Critical Care Congress. This training, offered every three years to SCCM’s volunteer community, is an opportunity for active volunteers to become familiar with SCCM activities, goals and processes as well as with the paths to leadership within the organization. Volunteers are the backbone of the Society, and this training event is a chance for the Society to ensure they feel supported, appreciated and well informed. This year’s Creative Community event will focus on balancing one’s work and social life, a fitting topic against the backdrop of Hawaii.
Finally, I would like to mention the Society’s successful headquarters move. After years of saving and planning, the Society relocated its offices from Des Plaines, Illinois, to the neighboring suburb of Mount Prospect. The move was necessary to accommodate our growing staff. It also is beneficial to have a permanent, identifiable headquarters from a public relations standpoint. This move is yet another marker of the Society’s continued growth and financial stability. It also reminds us that many of the developments and successes of the past year could not have materialized without the help of a dedicated and hardworking SCCM staff.
These examples in no way summarize all of SCCM’s accomplishments this year or enumerate all of its future goals. Committees, sections, chapters, work groups, staff and volunteers have seen their own triumphs and advancements. It has been an amazing year with many challenges, but even more tangible successes. As president, I have learned a lot more about SCCM than I ever knew, even as a Council member. I have learned how organizations work strategically and effectively, the importance of contemporary educational modalities, the essential need to build relationships both internally and externally – and a lot about myself. The year has only served to confirm my commitment to critical care as a profession and to the SCCM as the premier critical care association in the world.
