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DOI
https://doi.org/10.63853/PCRU4778
Description
INNOVATION & LEADERSHIP
Background: As innovations advance the outcomes and survival of pediatric patients with heart disease, an evolving patient population is increasing the complexity of inpatient heart care. The Heart Center at Children’s Health Dallas has seen a twofold increase in ventilator dependent tracheostomy patients since 2022, illustrating just one example of the shifting acuity profile of patients being cared for on the Acute Care Cardiology Unit (ACCU). Providing safe and high-quality care within a pediatric Heart Center requires enhanced resources and expertise across the entire multidisciplinary team. The need for increased respiratory therapy support was identified on the ACCU amid unit expansion and growing volumes of respiratory modalities. To facilitate the development of a primary team of Heart Center respiratory therapists (RTs), the leadership group aimed to develop a curriculum of cardiac content pertinent to respiratory care provision.
Implementation: Key concepts were identified to outline the structure for content to be included in the curriculum. Content was compiled and provided to learners in multimodal format consisting of an online video lecture to be completed as pre-work and a 3 hour in-person didactic lecture. Participants completed a pre- and post- course survey to evaluate self-reported confidence levels related to key focus areas and clinical concepts.
Evaluation: In the baseline pre-course survey, respiratory therapists reported lowest confidence in baseline knowledge of unrepaired infants with increased or decreased pulmonary blood flow and managing sudden desaturation in single ventricle patients. Following course completion, post-surveys demonstrated notable improvement in the areas previously reported as low confidence. Stage 2 & 3 Single Ventricles yielded the highest increase (37%) along with increased and decreased pulmonary blood flow lesions. Confidence in caring for stage 1 single ventricles increased by 33%. Overall learners rated the class as highly effective and conveyed enhanced confidence in caring for pediatric cardiac patients. To date, the first of 4 scheduled classes have been conducted with additional results to be analyzed upon completion of all classes.
Publication Date
11-24-2025
Disciplines
Pediatric Nursing
Recommended Citation
Birely, Alexandra; Torzone, Andrea; Kleiber, Jill; Harshman, Elysia; and Cory, Melinda, "Advancing Cardiorespiratory Care in the Heart Center: Development of a Specialized Cardiac Curriculum for Respiratory Therapists" (2025). 2025. 4.
https://scholarlycollection.childrens.com/nursing-anf2025/4
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
