Expert Panel on Acute & Critical Care

The Expert Panel on Acute and Critical Care focuses on informing health policy and practices related to acute and critical care. Goals are achieved by the creation and dissemination of knowledge related to the practice and care of acute or critically ill patients, their health care environment, and treatment processes.

Inaugural Year: 2005

Chair:
Jan Odom-Forren, PhD, RN, CPAN, FASPAN, FAAN
Associate Professor
University of Kentucky College of Nursing

Vice Chair:
Vallire Hooper PhD, RN, CPAN, FASPAN, FAAN
Senior Nurse Scientist
Ascension

Board Liaison: Karen Drenkard

Staff Liaison: Madeleine Rohrbach

Previous Chairs: Lola Coke (2020-2022), Judy Verger (2019-2020), Hilaire Thompson (2018-2019), Karen Reuter-Rice (2017-2018), Cynthia Arslanian-Engoren (2016-2017); Linda Chlan (2015-2016); Ruth M. Kleinpell (2005-2007)   

Summary:

The Acute and Critical Care Expert Panel was established to inform health policy and influence relevant issues related to acute and critical care. Members of the panel have diverse areas of expertise to provide leadership and expert opinion on a variety of issues. The panel facilitates networking, and fosters research and scholarship among members. It also promotes exchange of information and ideas with other nursing and professional groups. Opportunities for future projects include integration of technology into practice to promote quality and safety, identification of care delivery models that incorporate and maximize the advanced practice nurse role, and addressing futile and/or palliative care issues as they relate to care of the acute or critically ill patient.

Publications:

• Policy Dialogue: Optimizing the Nursing Workforce: Exploring Innovative Reforms and Policy Implications (Hosted in May 2022)
  Hosted by the Building Health Care System Excellence Expert Panel in collaboration with the Expert Panels on Quality Health Care and Acute and Critical Care, this dialogue focused on current workforce shortages, projected workforce demands, and models of care that optimize nurses’ expertise to enhance care delivery.
• Position Statement on Firearm Safety and Violence Prevention (November 17, 2022)

• Policy Dialogue: Healthcare Systems Post-COVID: Exploring Reforms & Policy Implications (Hosted in December 2021)
  Hosted by the Building Health Care System Excellence Expert Panel in collaboration with the Expert Panels on Palliative and End of Life Care; Military and Veterans Health; and Acute and Critical Care, this dialogue featured thought-provoking discussion about policy issues associated with the complexity of healthcare systems and their resulting burdens through the lens of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leading experts discussed the innovations implemented during the pandemic as well as the policy initiatives introduced to address health care solutions needed in the post-pandemic world.

• Position statement: Opioid Crisis through the Lens of Social Justice (September 2020)
• Position statement: Improving the care and health of populations through optimal use of clinical nurse specialists (July 2020)
• Position statement: Policies to support family caregivers (May-June 2018)
• Policy Brief: Engaging communities in creating health: Leveraging community benefit (September/October 2017)
• Policy Brief: Admit to observation. (November/December 2016). 
• Policy Brief: Reconsideration of do not resuscitate orders in the surgical/procedural setting. (May/June 2015).
• Policy Brief: Improving health and health care systems with advanced practice registered nurse practice in acute and critical care settings. Nursing Outlook 62 (September 2014) 366-370.
• The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and American Academy of Nursing (AAN) released a FREE online, self-paced program, "Best Practices for Elder Care." (2009)

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