Welcome to the AACN Practice Alert web page. The goal of the practice alerts is to help nurses and other health care practitioners carry their bold voices to the bedside to directly impact patient care. Practice alerts are succinct, dynamic directives from AACN that are supported by authoritative evidence to ensure excellence in practice and a safe and humane work environment. The topics will address both nursing and multidisciplinary activities of importance to acute and critically ill patients or their environments. As the undisputed voice of critical care, AACN will issue practice alerts to: Close research/practice gap Provide guidance Standardize practice Identify/inform about new advances/trends Practice Alerts are short directives designed for easy reference. The first part of the Practice Alert is the clinical information followed by references to support the clinical statements. Each Practice Alert will be listed under the Practice Alert subject header in the Table of Contents. The Practice Alerts may have materials available for you to use to assist with staff education or performance improvement activities. These materials will be located in the Table of Contents under the Education Tool Box or Performance Improvement Tool Box subject headers under the specific Practice Alert. Additional Practice Alerts will be added as warranted, based on why AACN issues Practice Alerts. Recognizing that practice is dynamic the Practice Alerts will be reviewed and updated to reflect any research based changes. Email joyce.hall@aacn.org to let us know if this format is useful. Please put Practice Alerts in the subject line.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PRACTICE ALERTS Oral Care in the Critically Ill - Issued 8/2006 Noninvasive Blood Pressure Monitoring Issued 5/11/2006, Rev. 1: 6/2006 Severe Sepsis Issued 04/2006 Deep Vein Thrombosis Prevention Issued 12/2005 Preventing Catheter-Related Bloodstream Infections Issued 9/2005 Verification of Feeding Tube Placement Issued 5/2005 Dye in Enteral Feedings Issued 4/2005 Family Presence During CPR and Invasive Procedures Issued 11/2004 ST Segment Monitoring Issued 8/2004; Rev 1: 4/2008 Educational Power Point Presentation ST Segment Monitoring Issued 5/2005; Rev. 1: 4/2008 (721 KB Please save document before opening) Performance Improvement Tools ST Segment Audit Tool Issued 4/2008 Dysrhythmia Monitoring Issued 8/2004; Rev 1: 4/2008 Educational Power Point Presentation Dysrhythmia Monitoring Issued 5/2005; Rev. 1: 4/2008 (759 KB Please save document before opening) Performance Improvement Tools Electrode Placement & Lead Selection Audit Tool Issued 4/2008 Pulmonary Artery Pressure Measurement (PAP) Issued 5/2004 Educational Power Point Presentation PAP Measurement Education Issued 5/2004 (3.83 MB Please save document before opening) Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) Issued 2/2004; Rev. 1: 1/2008 Educational Power Point Presentation VAP Education Program Issued 3/2004; Rev. 1: 1/2008 (1.98 MB Please save document before opening) Performance Improvement Tools Directions for Conducting Audits of HOB Elevation Issued 2/2004 Rev. 1: 9/20/2006; Revised 1/2008 Data Collection Tool for HOB Elevation Issued 2/2004 Rev. 1: 4/2004; Rev. 2: 1/2008