Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Fundamentals of Critical Care Support (FCCS) Certification: An Interprofessional Training

TTUHSC Interprofessional Practice and Education (IPE) Experience


Title of the Interprofessional Practice and Education Experience

Fundamentals of Critical Care Support (FCCS) Certification: An Interprofessional Training


Experience Status

Approved


Approval Date Range

6/28/2017 - 1/17/2025


Criteria for Registering the IPE Experience

  • Involvement of two or more professions.
  • Opportunities to learn about, from, and with one another.
  • Significant interactivity between participants.
  • Teaching and/or learning about interprofessional practice and education is intentionally integrated into the activity. Interprofessional practice and education constructs are targeted with IPE learning objectives are also discussed, trained, reviewed, and/or assessed as part of the learning activity.

Type of IPE Experience

  • Case-based and/or problem-based learning
  • Didactic learning
  • Simulation learning

IPEC Core Competencies Targeted by this IPE Experience

  • Communication: Communicate in a responsive, responsible, respectful, and compassionate manner with team members.
  • Teams and Teamwork: Apply values and principles of the science of teamwork to adapt one's own role in a variety of team settings.

Quintuple Aim Strategic Goals Discussed in this IPE Experience

  • Improving patient and/or population health outcomes

Detailed Description and Purpose of the IPE Experience

The Fundamentals of Critical Care Support (FCCS) objectives are designed to prepare non-intensivisits to manage critically ill patients for the first 24 hours or until transfer or appropriate critical care consultation can be arranged. The course focuses on managing the sudden deterioration of critically ill patients and prepares the interprofessional house staff and nurses for ICU coverage. Approximately 40-50 Adult-Gero Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP) students will take the FCCS course during their last clinical practicum semester. The course consists of pre-course learning that involves reading and viewing of certain lectures. Students then attend a two day course where there is a combination of didactic, simulation, and case-based scenario learning with skills check-offs and assessment of knowledge acquisition. Resources include the use of the SimLife center, interprofessional providers such as respiratory therapists and physicians, and current AGACNP faculty. The course is designed to teach the management of the critically ill patient utilizing appropriate and effective teamwork and communication with all available professions.

IPE will be integrated into the FCCS course in the following ways:

1. During the skills lab sessions and simulation component of the FCCS course, AGACNP students will be teamed with respiratory therapists and/or physicians to identify significant changes in the unstable patient. Together, they will collaborate to develop a plan of care for the patient and work to implement the plan of care based on their scope of practice and available equipment.

2. During the team-based case scenario learning stations and the simulation-based activities with ventilator and oxygen management, the AGACNP students will work to communicate and prioritize the needs of the critically ill patient through discussion of profession-specific priorities, roles and responsibilities of each profession, and how interprofessional teamwork provides the foundation for patient-centered care. The AGACNP students will work with either the physicians and/or respiratory therapists to collaboratively problem-solve the issue with the patient and perform interventions that utilize the best available care from each of the professions present.

3. Effective team communication tools and strategies will be targeted and reinforced during simulation and case-based scenarios to recognize and initiate management of the critically ill patient. Using DIRECT methodology, participants are instructed to communicate their perspective and assessment to others on the team, so that time-sensitive and critical tasks are not missed and can be completed expertly and promptly. The role, responsibility and scope of practice for multiple healthcare professionals will be addressed to determine the need for expert consultation, further intervention, and/or patient transfer. Foundations of collaborative practice will be targeted during debrief and feedback sessions with each team-based group.


Level of IPE Integration

  • 2. Immersion Level: Consists of development learning activities that provide learners with the opportunity to learn about, with, and from other professional learners in an active learning situation where they are applying learning during the activity. The desired outcome for activities offered at the immersion level is that learners will develop critical thinking skills as part of an interprofessional view that incorporates multiple perspectives and acknowledges and encourages diversity in providing quality health and human services.

Attendance or Participation in the IPE Experience

  • Course requirement - NURS6652 Adult Gerontolgy Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Clinical Practicum
  • Certificate credit

Frequency of the IPE Experience

  • 01. Annually
  • The learning activity will occur one time a year. It will occur during the Nursing 6652 Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP) Practicum, which is the last clinical course of the AGACNP curriculum.

Duration and/or Timeline of the IPE Experience

  • 06. greater than 11 hours
  • The course will be completed over a two-day schedule and will occur mid-way through the semester. All AGACNP students will be provided with the course textbook and required pre-course activities at the beginning of the semester. They will complete all readings and activities prior to attending the live, in-person skills and simulation lab. The students will participate in didactic, simulation, and skills stations during the two-day on campus portion. At the end of the course, and after successfully passing the post-test and skills check-off, students will be awarded a course completion certificate.

Campus and/or Location of the IPE Experience

  • Distance Education
  • Lubbock

Average Number of Learners Participating in the IPE Experience

  • 01. up to 50
  • There will be an average of 40-50 students in the course each time it is offered.

Target Audiences

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Audiences


School of Health Professions Audiences


School of Medicine Audiences


School of Nursing Audiences

  • Graduate MSN
  • Post-Master’s/Advanced Practice

School of Pharmacy Audiences


School of Population and Public Health Audiences


Other

Respiratory therapists and physicians from outside the TTUHSC will assist with skills labs and didactic lecture.

IPE Learning Objectives for the Experience

Values and Ethics

  • VE08. Apply high standards of ethical conduct and quality in contributions to team-based care.
  • VE09. Maintain competence in one’s own profession in order to contribute to interprofessional care.
  • VE03. Uphold the dignity, privacy, identity, and autonomy of persons while maintaining confidentiality in the delivery of team-based care.
  • VE05. Value the expertise of health professionals and its impacts on team functions and health outcomes.
  • VE06. Collaborate with honesty and integrity while striving for health equity and improvements in health outcomes.

Roles and Responsibilities

  • RR03. Incorporate complementary expertise to meet health needs including the determinants of health.
  • RR02. Collaborate with others within and outside of the health system to improve health outcomes.
  • RR05. Practice cultural humility in interprofessional teamwork.
  • RR01. Include the full scope of knowledge, skills, and attitudes of team members to provide care that is person-centered, safe, cost-effective, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable.

Communication

  • C02. Use communication tools, techniques, and technologies to enhance team function, well-being, and health outcomes.
  • C04. Promote common understanding of shared goals.
  • C03. Communicate clearly with authenticity and cultural humility, avoiding discipline-specific terminology.
  • C07. Examine one’s position, power, role, unique experience, expertise, and culture towards improving communication and managing conflicts.

Teams and Teamwork

  • TT03. Practice team reasoning, problem-solving, and decision-making.
  • TT05. Apply interprofessional conflict management methods, including identifying conflict cause and addressing divergent perspectives.
  • TT07. Share team accountability for outcomes.

Type of Learner Assessment Administered

  • Knowledge assessment
  • Skills and/or competency assessment
  • Course evaulation developed by FCCS

Formal Assessment Protocol used, if Applicable

A pre-test is given to all participants to identify areas of knowledge strength and deficiency. Students have a skills check-off for each station they rotate through and are given the opportunity to repeat the skills until mastery is achieved. Students take a post-test to determine overall knowledge acquisition. The pre and post-test may not be uploaded due to test security requirements from the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Type of Program Evaluation Administered

  • Activity feedback/evaluation – from faculty, facilitators, and/or preceptors

Provide Details on the Potential Sustainability of the IPE Experience

  • Incentives available for learner and/or faculty participation
  • Integrated into a course and/or experiential rotation requirements
  • This is a required course component. A student fee has been added to the course for each student to ensure funds are available for the course license every year. All lectures are provided by AGACNP faculty as part of their teaching role and do not incur an extra charge. A small honorarium is provided to the interprofessional staff who teach in the course and this is completely covered by course fees. As all the prepwork and course coordination is done by faculty on salary, the course is sustainable for the long-term future.

Provide Dedicated Funding Sources:

  • Decentralized school or program funding

Roles of Faculty/Staff in the IPE Experience:

  • Facilitators
  • Instructors and/or preceptors
  • Planning committee members
  • The AGACNP faculty and appropriate educational support staff coordinate and plan the course. All facets, from obtaining the course license, lectures, skills rotations, testing, and evaluation are performed by salaried faculty and staff. Faculty act as course facilitators and instructors. Faculty coordinate and perform many of the skills stations in conjunction with the other interprofessional disciplines present.

Additional Information About the IPE Experience, if Necessary

As previously described, the course focuses on the management of the critically ill patient within the first 24 hours of hospitalization or until transfer to a higher level of care can occur. The course emphasizes the need to work with all available healthcare professionals to provide the best care for the patient while utilizing each profession's expertise. Ethical and safe, quality patient care are emphasized. Teamwork and effective interprofessional communication are a cornerstone of the course.


IPE Experience Organizer

  • School of Nursing

Contact Person(s) and Contact Information for the IPE Experience

Steven Branham, PhD, RN, ACNP-BC, FNP-BC-- Assistant Professor, AGACNP Lead Faculty FCCS
Phone: 281-798-4815 E-mail: steven.branham@ttuhsc.edu

Tara C. Hilliard, RN, MSN, ACNP-BC--Assistant Professor, AGACNP Program Director
Phone: 806-743-9222 E-mail: tara.hilliard@ttuhsc.edu