Pneumonia
Course #94674 - $60 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
Pneumonia is a substantial healthcare concern, ranking among the most common reasons for emergency department and outpatient visits, hospitalizations, and deaths among both adults and children. Decreasing the incidence of pneumonia and its associated morbidity and mortality requires a multifaceted approach and a strategy that includes: a concerted effort to improve rates of pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations, especially among high-risk populations; better adherence to guideline-recommended treatment; systems-level approaches to improve the appropriate use of antibiotics; and performance improvement initiatives to reduce healthcare-associated infections.
- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
- DEFINITIONS
- EPIDEMIOLOGY AND SCOPE
- GUIDELINE-DIRECTED MANAGEMENT AND PREVENTION OF PNEUMONIA
- PATHOGENESIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF PNEUMONIA
- COMMUNITY-ACQUIRED PNEUMONIA
- PREVENTION OF PNEUMONIA
- PNEUMONIA ASSOCIATED WITH HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
- SUMMARY
- Works Cited
- Evidence-Based Practice Recommendations Citations
This course is designed for all physicians, physician assistants, and nurses, especially those working in the emergency department, outpatient settings, pediatrics, nursing homes, and intensive care units.
The purpose of this course is to provide physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who manage the care of patients with pneumonia a foundation for effective management strategies in order to improve outcomes and foster an interprofessional collaborative practice consistent with published guidelines.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Discuss the epidemiology, scope, and classification of pneumonias.
- Predict the likely etiology (pathogens) in a given case of pneumonia, based on epidemiologic features, clinical setting, and risk factor assessment.
- Assess the diagnostic probability of pneumonia in a given patient, using careful history and clinical examination findings.
- Determine, by clinical criteria and severity of illness score, which patients with pneumonia require hospitalization or admission to an intensive care unit.
- Develop a management plan for community-acquired pneumonia, including selection of initial antibiotic therapy appropriate to clinical context and site of care, in accordance with established guidelines.
- Outline the diagnosis and management of community-acquired pneumonia in pediatric patients.
- Devise a strategy for prevention of community-acquired pneumonia, including risk factor reduction and recommended immunization protocols.
- Identify the epidemiology and risk factors of hospital-acquired, ventilator-associated, and nursing home-acquired pneumonia.
- Anticipate the likely pathogens and antibiotic-sensitivity patterns associated with pneumonia that arises in healthcare facilities.
- Initiate the management of patients with hospital-acquired or ventilator-associated pneumonia, including guideline-adherent selection of empiric antibiotic therapy.
- Develop a strategy to reduce the risk of pneumonia for patients in healthcare facilities.
Carol Whelan, APRN, has been working in nursing education since 2000. She received her Master's degree in psychiatric/mental health nursing from St. Joseph College in West Hartford, Connecticut, and completed post-graduate nurse practitioner training at Yale University. Ms. Whelan is an Associate Clinical Professor and Lecturer at Yale University and works as an APRN at the Department of Veterans' Affairs in Connecticut, where she also serves as the Vice President of Medical Staff. She has authored many articles, textbook chapters, and books.
John M. Leonard, MD, Professor of Medicine Emeritus, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, completed his post-graduate clinical training at the Yale and Vanderbilt University Medical Centers before joining the Vanderbilt faculty in 1974. He is a clinician-educator and for many years served as director of residency training and student educational programs for the Vanderbilt University Department of Medicine. Over a career span of 40 years, Dr. Leonard conducted an active practice of general internal medicine and an inpatient consulting practice of infectious diseases.
Contributing faculty, Carol Whelan, APRN, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Contributing faculty, John M. Leonard, MD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
John V. Jurica, MD, MPH
Mary Franks, MSN, APRN, FNP-C
Randall L. Allen, PharmD
The division planners have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.