Journals and conferences for PICU nursing

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

I've noticed a dearth of journals, conferences and the like specific to PICU topics. I'm in the process of doing a survey of nurses in our PICU regarding what joournals they subscribe to, and am looking for input.

Would you please post what journals you subscribe to and how relevant they are to your practice in the PICU? Also, any conferences upcoming or recent would be appreciated. Links to pertinent sites would win you my everlasting gratitude. :)

OK- since you've read this far - I'm a recent MSN Ed grad and am looking into putting on a conference for PICU nurses. What topics would you be interested in - and how far would you travel for a good one-day PICU specific conference with CEUs offered?

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

You're right that there really aren't many publications specific to pediatric critical care. And that's a huge shame. Some of the adult-based critical care journals occasionally offer articles that are peds related, but not consistently. As a member of AACN I receive the American Journal of Critical Care, Critical Care Nurse and Bold Voices. Every so often there's something in one or the other of them that applies directly to my practice, other times there're things that could be applied with a little critical thinking and more often, there's not much that will impact on my practice at all. Their National Teaching Institute includes pediatric content - I presented last year on moral distress in the PICU - but they don't offer much recognition of the learning needs we have. This is evidenced by the way they stack the pediatric sessions into only about 1/4 of the time slots and repeat only a small number of them so the participants are forced to choose between sometimes as many as 5 topics they'd love to learn about. The day that I presented, there were 4 other pediatric topics being offered at the same time, so I was very surprised to have 40 people in my room with me. The current president of AACN is a pediatric critical care nurse, and I had great hopes of an improved focus on peds, but I think I'm dreaming.

There is a pediatric critical care conference in the fall that is provided by Contemporary Forums (Pediatric Critical Care Nursing ). The CNE on my unit attends. (She gets funding from the unit and guaranteed time off... I don't get anything but a hassle...) I'd love to go this year but it unfortunately falls right after my daughter's wedding and I just can't afford it! I already have the time off, but I don't have the $2000 or so it would cost me to go. Having said that, under other circumstances, I'd travel up to about 150 miles to attend a one-day conference. Topics that would interest me would relate to advances in care for septic shock, pediatric trauma, oncologic emergencies, airway management for those with congenital malformations of the head and neck and burns. (My unit is on the cutting edge of cardiac care so I'm learning all of that on the job...)

Best wishes for organizing your conference. Let me know if I can help you "sell" it!