Online Critical Care Medicine Course
Critical Care Medicine Academy – Learning Objectives
Session 1: Introduction – Respiratory Failure and Mechanical Ventilation
- Summarize the indications for mechanical ventilation and ventilation goals
- Describe basic lung mechanics
- Recognize and prevent ventilator-induced lung injury
- Appreciate the benefits and deleterious effects of PEEP and auto-PEEP
- Understand modes of mechanical ventilation
- Manage ventilator-patient asynchrony and basic ventilator alarms
- Differentiate between weaning and extubation strategies
- Describe the principles of non-invasive ventilation
Session 2: Pulmonary Emergencies: ARDS, Pulmonary Embolism and Pneumothorax
- Describe clinical, radiographic, pathologic and physiologic characteristics of ARDS
- Recognize types of ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI)
- Apply ventilator strategies to minimize VILI
- Understand therapeutic options for advanced therapy for patients with severe ARDS
- Appreciate the clinical manifestations, diagnostic algorithm, and management of pulmonary emboli and pneumothorax
Session 3: Acid-Base Disorders and Acute Renal Insufficiency
- Identify a simple (single) acid-base disorder
- Understand the appropriate acute and chronic compensation to single disorder
- Discern difference between uncompensated, acutely compensated, partially compensated and fully compensated disorders
- Recognize a second primary (double) disorder
- Expose “hidden” and “complex” acid-base disorders
- Know the differential diagnosis of the six primary acid-base disorders
- Use patient history to more accurately identify acid-base disorders
- Appreciate the pathophysiology, diagnostic strategy, and management of acute lung injury in the ICU setting
Session 4: Sepsis Syndrome, Septic Shock and ICU infections
- Recall the international consensus definition of sepsis and septic shock
- Describe the continuum of sepsis from mild to shock
- Understand the recommendations from the Surviving Sepsis Campaign
- Synthesize these recommendations to competently manage patients with sepsis
- Appreciate the pathophysiology, diagnostic strategy, and management of nosocomial ICU infections
Session 5: Cardiovascular Emergencies
- Understand the physiology and application of invasive hemodynamic monitoring and its application to fluid and vasoactive support
- Competently interpret EKGs and recognize ischemia, injury and infarction
- Define HTN emergency and its management
- Recognize common brady and tachyarrhythmias
- Understand the pathophysiology and management of CHF
Session 6: Point of Care Ultrasound
- Understand the underlying physics, transducers and orientation of ultrasound
- Identify normal anatomic structures on cardiac and pulmonary ultrasound
- Recognize basic sonographic pathology for cardiac and lung imaging
- Putting it altogether with POCUS cases
Session 7: Neurologic Emergencies in the ICU
- Understand treatment of the patient with traumatic brain injury (TBI)
- Develop skills to workup and treat patient with status epilepticus
- Recognize time sensitive steps in managing patient with acute stroke syndrome
- Differentiate the causes and management of neuromuscular disease in the ICU patient
- Describe criteria for establishing brain death
Session 8: GI and Hematologic/Oncologic Emergencies
- Prioritize management of acute GI bleed
- Differentiate the approach in managing acute and chronic liver failure
- Understand assessment and treatment of acute pancreatitis
- Understand appropriate indications for blood product replacement and reversing coagulopathy
- Review treatment for sickle cell crises
- Recognize oncologic related emergencies and how to initiate the appropriate therapy
Session 9: Endocrine Emergencies
- Understand management of hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia in hospitalized patients
- Recognize clinical presentation and treatment priorities for patients with life-threatening diseases of the pituitary, adrenal, and thyroid glands
- Understand the causes and acute management of electrolyte derangements in ICU patients
Session 10: Critical Care Medicine – Potpourri
- Recognize patients in ICU at specific outcome risk based on nutritional status
- Understand the strategies in providing nutrition that impact on outcome
- Review advantages of enteral over parenteral nutrition in first several days of critical illness
- Understand changing nutritional requirements over first several days in ICU
- Recognize the role of the palliative care team in supporting patients in ICU as well as their caregivers
- Understand specific ICU patients who will derive most benefit from these services
- Appreciate barriers to providing this care
- Review outcomes that improve with Palliative Care integration into critical care team