GI Issues in the ICU and GI Emergencies: Listen to Your Gut

Activity Summary

Required reading for all learners: Implicit Bias impacts patient outcomes

Critical care nurses who maintain vigilance for aberrant conditions of the GI tract are formidable foes to the adversity which accompanies these illnesses. The session takes a high-level approach to life-threatening GI issues and emergencies of intestinal ischemia/infarction, obstruction and perforation with sepsis. Clinical clues to aid recognition of true GI emergencies are presented, helping attendees in techniques of rapid assessment and interventions for patients with these dangerous conditions.

Objectives

Discuss the incidence and etiology of abdominal vascular emergencies, GI obstruction and perforation and serious biliary disorders.
Correlate clinical evaluation and management of patients with intestinal ischemia or infarction, bowel obstruction or biliary emergencies.
Review the significant symptoms of GI illnesses within the context of GI anatomy and apply management strategies to case-based scenarios.

Continuing Education Disclosure Statement

Accreditation

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.
Provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, Provider number CEP 1036, for {contactHours} contact hours.

Disclosures

Any relevant relationship between an ineligible company and an individual with the ability to influence clinical content will be identified by the Nurse Planner within the activity. Any relevant relationship between an ineligible company and an individual with the ability to influence clinical content has been mitigated.

Accreditation refers to recognition of continuing education only and does not imply AACN, ANCC, or CBRN approval or endorsement of any commercial products discussed or displayed in conjunction with this educational activity. Activities with pharmacology hours are to assist the APRN in fulfilling the pharmacotherapeutic education requirements for licensure and certification renewals.

Activities meet the standards for most states that require mandatory continuing education for license and/or certification renewal. AACN recommends consulting with your own state board of nursing or credentialing organization before submitting your certificate of completion.