AACN and Elsevier/MC Strategies announce Critical Care Pharmacology online nursing course

- Critical Care Pharmacology Course Promotes Patient and Drug Administration Safety

Elsevier/MC Strategies (http://www.mcstrategies.com/), a pioneer in providing e-learning solutions to more than 1,300 healthcare organizations, has partnered with the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) to develop a series of online nursing courses. Today, AACN and Elsevier/MC Strategies announced the first course in this series: AACN Critical Care Pharmacology.

"Critical Care Pharmacology will provide significant benefits to bedside clinicians and educators," said Justine Medina, RN, MSN, AACN Director of Professional Practice and Programs. "Patient safety is paramount to ensure the best outcome for critically ill patients. Critical Care Pharmacology breaks new ground in online clinical education by integrating an interdisciplinary framework to provide the requisite knowledge to support safe administration of medications in the highly complex environment of critical care."

Developed with expert consultation from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses in collaboration with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), the interactive, online course will help prepare nurses to safely administer drugs specific to critical care patients. Users of the eight-lesson product can take advantage of continuing nursing education contact hours offered through AACN and will engage and learn through four key features, including "Ask the Pharmacist," "Safety Alert," "Myth vs. Fact" and "What's the Evidence?" Presented in a case study format that utilizes cutting-edge animations, Elsevier/MC Strategies designed the course to encourage critical thinking skills with a real world critical-care patient and clearly illustrate complicated concepts.

"Ensuring safe care of critically-ill patients receiving high-alert drugs has long been a challenge," said Cindy Tryniszewski, RN, MSN Executive Director, Clinical e-Learning, Elsevier/MC Strategies. "Working alongside AACN and ASHP, we have delivered a high-quality product that provides nurses with superior continuing education on how drugs work, why drugs cause adverse effects, and what the implications are for patient care."

Among current challenges facing healthcare organizations is the effort to provide safe, competent and quality care to critically ill patients to ensure optimal outcomes. Critical Care Pharmacology effectively meets this challenge, not only by offering in-depth education concerning medication safety, best practices, and evidence-based interventions, but by complying with The Joint Commission National Patient Safety Goals. A soon to be released white paper from Elsevier/MC Strategies highlighting this topic is titled "Education Options for Staff Development: Using a Blended Learning Approach to Teach Critical Care Pharmacology". This white paper highlights issues surrounding quality patient care as a direct result of best practices in drug administration.

Additionally, Elsevier offers a collection of four powerful online reference tools for nurses and allied health professionals. The Mosby's Nursing Suite provides complete solutions to nursing staff, and includes Mosby Nursing Skills, an online skills and procedures index; Mosby Nursing Consult, a comprehensive online resource for nurses; and Mosby's Index, a nursing and allied health journal abstracts and indexing database. Mosby's eLearning promotes safe, quality, and accurate patient care through high-quality, online continuing education.