Advanced Practice Provider Fellowship in Critical Care Medicine
CCM Fellowship Values
Collaboration:
We value a collaborative approach to our practice. We recognize the value, skills, and opinions of others. We desire fellows that can work well within a team and accept feedback from others.
Inquisitive:
We value the desire to learn and know more. We seek to make things better and are open to new ideas. We hope to select fellows that are self-directed learners, value education, and value life-long learning.
Balance:
We value our time both at work and at home and seek to find a healthy balance between the two. We wish to find a fellow who demonstrates a “work hard, play hard” mentality, that wishes to find a position that helps to balance their work responsibility with personal life.
Integrity:
We do what we say we are going to do and are accountable for our actions. We hope to find a fellow who demonstrates integrity throughout their practice, both clinically and academically.
Compassion:
We treat others with dignity and humility. We always seek to understand others' points of view. We seek a fellow who practices compassion with every interaction, whether that be with patients or with their peers.
The UK College of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine offers a one-year fellowship for advanced practice providers in two sub-specialties of critical care medicine: Neuro-Surgical Critical Care and Cardiovascular Critical Care. Graduates of the fellowship program are awarded a certificate of completion.
The UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital is multifaceted with multiple certifications including being a Level I trauma center, a TJC Comprehensive Stroke Center, an Extracorporeal Life Support Organization (ELSO) Center of Excellence, and possessing American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet status among many others that provides care for some of the highest acuity patients in the nation.
The division of critical care medicine provides primary consultative critical care in the cardiovascular ICU (CVICU), the neurosciences ICU (NSICU), and the surgical ICU (SICU) at the UK Albert B. Chandler Hospital. Our APPs are truly integral parts of the critical care team, managing the daily care of patients in many of these ICU settings. Fellows will receive graduated responsibility in the management of these patients.
Critical Care Clinical Experience
Neuro-Surgical ICU Fellowship:
Fellows will rotate primarily on the neurocritical care and surgical critical care services along with the opportunity for elective rotations designed to enhance their overall education. Basic curriculum is as follows:
- 4 months rotation on the NeuroSurgical ICU service, with one month on nights
- 4 months rotation on the Surgical ICU service, with one month on nights
- 2 months elective rotations (former fellows have rotated with the CVICU, Palliative Care, Trauma Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Interventional Radiology, and Infectious Disease)
- 2 months of Independent practice.
Participants of this fellowship gain experience managing patients with neurological and neurosurgical conditions including acute ischemic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and traumatic brain injuries, as well as, the management of surgical subspecialties like liver transplant, vascular surgery, colorectal surgery, surgical oncology, head and neck surgery, and thoracic surgery.
Cardiovascular ICU Fellowship:
Fellows will rotate primarily within the cardiovascular and surgical critical care service, along with the opportunity for elective rotations designed to enhance their overall education. Basic curriculum is as follows:
- 5 months rotation on the CVICU service, with one month nights
- 4 months rotating through the following teams: Heart Failure, Cath Lab, First Assist Observer, CV Floor, ECMO, and Thoracic Floor.
- 1 month elective rotation (former fellows have rotated with the Neuro ICU, Palliative Care, Trauma Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Interventional Radiology, and Infectious Disease)
- 2 months of Independent practice
Participants of this fellowship gain experience managing patients with cardiovascular diseases and post-cardiovascular surgery including post-surgical cases like CABG, valve replacement, heart transplant, Aortic Aneurysm Repair, and heart failure, as well as many more aspects of critical care.
Critical Care Didactics
Informal bedside didactic training is provided by both our critical care medicine physicians and our APPs every day. Formal didactics include dedicated APP fellow lectures on a variety of topics, from critical care fundamentals to specific subspecialty topics. Monthly simulation lab exercises are designed to give fellows the opportunity to practice in a safe environment with feedback from APP faculty. These exercises will include the performance of invasive procedures, management of emergency situations, how to interact with patients' families, delivering bad news, and other critical care topics. Specialized training in the use of point-of-care ultrasound for the diagnosis and management of critical care patients occurs throughout the fellowship, with specific didactic training as well as hands on guidance by APP and physician faculty. Oral and written examinations at various points throughout the year serve to assess the fellow's progress and identify areas where additional training would be beneficial. In addition to the specific training unique to the APP fellowship program, APP fellows have access to multiple learning opportunities throughout the academic medical center, including multidisciplinary conferences, radiology conferences, and subspecialty lectures.
Fellowship Project
Fellows will complete an academic project throughout the year, ultimately leading to publication and/or presentation at a local or national meeting. In conjunction with their faculty mentor, the fellow will identify an area of specific interest and then design and implement their project. Examples of previous projects include training ICU nurses in the use of point-of-care ultrasound to place peripheral IV catheters, implementation of a rounding strategy to improve communication between the ICU nurses and critical care medicine teams, and presentation of a case study of a patient with unique pathology at an international meeting.
Our Desired Candidate
Our ideal candidate is a nurse practitioner (NP) with a high interest in pursuing a career as an NP intensivist with a peri-operative focus. We seek a candidate who is a new or transitioning NP with less than one year experience in critical care medicine as an NP. This candidate would have a foundation in critical care, as evidenced by at least one year's experience as an RN in an ICU. Any additional work experience, rotations, or community projects that help demonstrate your commitment to understanding the intensive care population would make you a competitive candidate. Your application will be viewed as a whole (CV, letters of recommendation, personal statement, etc.).
How to Apply
The University of Kentucky's Critical Care APP Fellowship begins on Oct. 1 of each year. Applications will be posted in January of each year and are available on the UK HealthCare jobs site (https://ukjobs.uky.edu/).