Neurocritical care for the non-neurocritical care provider

[NeuroNP]

I'm working on a presentation covering basic neurocritical care topics. It's aimed at the ICU nurse/NP who works someplace where there isn't dedicated neurocritical care coverage. It's been my experience that a lot of neuro is alien and maybe even a bit frightening to people who don't do it full time (that was certainly my experience before I started in neurocritical care!). I know that there are a lot of specialties like this (CT surgery comes to mind) but most of those are fairly well isolated. That is, if you work in a place that doesn't do CT surgery, you aren't likely to have to deal with CT surgery. Neuro is a little different, however. Not infrequently, patient's in non neuro ICUs will have strokes or minor head trauma. Hospitals without round the clock neuro coverage (never mind dedicated neuro ICUs and neurointensivists) will still often admit acute strokes to their ICUs.

So, for those of you out there who don't do neurocritical care, what topics would you like to see in a basic talk like this? Would this even be something you'd find helpful?

Thanks!

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

For basics -

- immediate stroke management, when to anticoagulate vs not

- EVDs and ICP management

- Fundamentals of which strokes need higher BP goals and which need lower etc in the acute phase

Overall - what things can I do in the immediate acute care phase to improve the patient's long term outcome?