WHO IS THE CRITICAL CARE NURSE?
A Change Agent
A Direct health care provider to the community
An Educator
A Counsellor and a Helper
A Manager & Supervisor
A Planner
A Choreographer
A Researcher
The Holistic Nurse
The emerging role of a nurse as a change agent must be visualized as a Social Scientist too.
WHAT DO THEY DO?
The critical care nurse is an integral member of the healthcare team, working with patients and their families to distinguish between what can be done and what should be done.
Interacting with relatives can be a challenging task, and nurses play a leading role in integrating relatives in ICU.
S/he is the bridge between the patient and the medical fraternity and the patient's family.
She also must be an interlocutor for the patient, when the patient is unable to communicate. This can be a major challenge and requires great understanding of human pain and suffering.
Critical care nursing may be defined as the area of nursing that specializes in caring for patients who need an immediate care response for life-threatening situations. A critical care nurse deals with critically-ill patients, and patients who need emergency care, and their families. The rationale for specialization of this branch is that special skills and techniques are needed for working with these patients, for whom Care can make a huge difference, often between life and death.
African Federation of Critical Care Nurses is the network of Nurse Leaders from Africa, who are Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS) whose care focus on some specific patient populations, and they work in many different clinical environments such as Operating Rooms, Cardiac Cath labs, Neonatal and Pediatric and Adult ICUs) as well as Emergency Rooms, Burn units, Telemetry and Progressive Care units.
Critical care nursing leaders in Africa have been on a 10-year journey to form a sustainable network and strategy to improve conditions for critical care nurses and patients and their families. The AFCCN is a sustainable resource to lead and drive healthcare improvement and reform in the continent, Africa. ‘Collaboration is the language of critical care.’ The Warriors intend to spread quality improvement across the region through Knowledge – Sharing and Networking, partnering with experts from across the Globe.
Principles such as Interprofessional Collaboration and Effective Leadership that are essential to healthy work environments are important to imbibe. Nurses are uniquely positioned to play an integral role in the transformation of health care.
AFCCN members are Transformational Leaders who stimulate and inspire followers to both achieve extraordinary outcomes and, in the process, develop their own leadership capacity.
“Motivate and inspire, they relentlessly create the vision and set strategies for action! Their ultimate gift is not to have followers but to develop many other leaders.”
-Dr. Rick Goodman
Using Communication and relationship management which are indispensable components in a nurse manager’s leadership toolbox. Both facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration among team members in providing high-quality patient care. Nurse Leaders are the infrastructure of safety, and they know there’s a clear connection between quality, safety, staffing and patient outcomes.
Shared decision-making, creativity and innovation allow health-care professionals to learn from each other and enhance the effectiveness of their collaborative efforts.
A robust global effort championing training and research in the management of acute severe illnesses, such as sepsis, in resource-limited settings is essential.
AFCCN is in Collaboration with the World Federation of Critical Care Nurses (WFCCN); the African Sepsis Alliance (ASA); MedReach; the Emirates Society of Intensive/ Critical Care Medicine (ESICCM), U.A.E.; Global Sepsis Alliance (GSA)/ World Sepsis Day (WSD) Germany; as national associations, individual members and as a group.
This is the way forward for African Federation of Critical Care Nurses – Networking; Leading the way; Partnering and Collaborating with Global bodies for the Best Practices and the “Right Care, Right Now” in Africa, for Africans and other Nationals who live in Africa.
African Federation of Critical Care Nurses are well positioned to take on the ownership from henceforth, the fight against Sepsis and other diseases that are burdensome to our people, with the commitment to achieving the Universal Health Coverage (UHC).