Suzanne
is an Associate Professor of Nursing, a Clinician 5 in the MICU, and a Project
Coordinator for the Chief of Staff’s Medical Management Team at the University
of Virginia Health Systems in Charlottesville Virginia. In her joint
appointment, Suzanne teaches Acute Care Nurse Practitioners and Clinical Nurse
Specialists in the Acute and Critical Care program of the School of Nursing,
practices and does clinical research in the MICU, and designs care delivery
systems for selected clinical areas in the hospital.
Suzanne’s
research is predominantly in critical care with a major focus on mechanical
ventilation and weaning. She is the inventor of the Burns Wean Assessment
Program (BWAP), a computer based weaning program that is currently in place in
over 50 hospitals across the country. She speaks widely on mechanical
ventilation, weaning and clinical research and has published her work in
numerous peer-reviewed journals.
Suzanne
has been the recipient of numerous awards. Examples include: a Presidential
Citation from the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the American Association of
Critical Care Nurses (AACN) “Distinguished Nurse Research Lecturer” award in
1998, the University of Virginia Alumni “Excellence in Teaching Award”,
Sigma Theta Tau “Nancy Hilt Excellence in Practice Award”, AACN’s
“Mentoring Award”, SCCM’s “Presidential Citation” and a special
“Commendation from the Medical Policy Council of the University of Virginia”
for excellence in teaching, research, practice and leadership.
“Systematic
Comprehensive Multidisciplinary Approach to Assuring Good Outcomes for Long Term
Ventilated Patients”
Session
Description
college essay topics
The care of the long-term mechanically ventilated (LTMV) patient
population is associated with higher morbidity and mortality, higher
institutional costs, and patient and family dissatisfaction. As a result, many
institutions have designed system approaches to improve clinical and financial
outcomes associated with this unique patient population.
This session will describe the evolution and development of an
institutional approach to caring for these patients using a multidisciplinary
evidence based pathway, protocols and “Outcomes Managers”. The model of care
delivery will be described in addition to one-year clinical and cost outcomes
(e.g. ventilator duration, ICU length of stay, hospital length of stay,
mortality and cost savings) associated with the approach. The importance of
“holding the gains” (a.k.a. “what it takes to accomplish sustained
positive outcomes”) will also be discussed.
Objectives:
At the end of this session, the participant will be able
to:
Clinical Research: Part of what we do!
Session Description:
This presentation is designed to share one MICU’s unique
approach to establishing and nurturing a unit based clinical research program.
While the techniques and strategies may be similar to those described by others,
the context in which the program has flourished will be presented in order to
demonstrate that “research is part of what we do”!!
Objectives:
At the end of this session the participant will be able to:
