ICU-READY was created with trainees in mind. As clinician-educators in the medical ICU, we recognize that ICU rotations can be busy, hectic, and stressful experiences with little downtime for learning about critical care medicine. Our goal was to design a digital curriculum to better prepare trainees for their ICU experience. Our hope is that after using ICU-READY you are better prepared to excel on ICU day one and take full advantage of your ICU experience.
ICU-READY is a “just-in-time” educational tool. A “just-in-time” educational tool is used prior to a teaching session or experience to better prepare learners. “Just-in-time” education is based on the educational theory of priming, in which prior exposure to a topic promotes better learning and retention of knowledge. For example, while rounding in the ICU if you have never seen nor heard of heated high-flow nasal cannula (HHFNC), it takes your brain longer to process information about HHFNC on rounds and more difficult to know how to apply that information to patient care. However, if you are already familiar with HHFNC, you can more quickly process the information you are hearing and place it within an existing mental model. ICU-READY is designed to provide core information about critical care medicine so you can be better prepared to learn and provide patient care on ICU day one!
ICU-READY is a 10-part digital curriculum designed to prepare you for an ICU rotation. We designed ICU-READY to focus on core critical care content that trainees should know either by the start, or end, of their ICU rotation. We hope that ICU-READY provides a knowledge jump-start and makes you more prepared to take advantage of your ICU experience.
ICU-READY stands for Intensive Care Unit – Rapid Educational Asynchronous Digital resource for intern Year.
ICU-READY is made up of 10 knowledge boluses covering the most important critical care topics, including:
We designed ICU-READY to prepare trainees for their upcoming ICU rotations. Using the educational theory of “priming”, we believe that using ICU-READY to prepare for an upcoming ICU rotation helps trainees construct better mental models and schemas and, therefore, learn and retain more information once they start their clinical experience. We typically recommend starting ICU-READY one week before your ICU rotation.
While we hope that you use ICU-READY to prepare for your ICU rotation, you can also use ICU-READY throughout your rotation to review core critical care topics. For example, if you are admitting a patient with ARDS overnight you could use the ARDS knowledge bolus to remind yourself about ARDS pathophysiology and management.
ICU-READY was designed by University of Colorado Pulmonary and Critical Care fellows and attendings. Our group is dedicated to medical education in the ICU, curriculum development, and maximizing the experience of trainees in the ICU.
ICU-READY was designed by University of Colorado Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellows and attendings. The University of Colorado mascot is “Ralphie the Buffalo”. Contrary to popular belief, Ralphie is actually a North American bison but the terms bison and buffalo can be used interchangeably. As Colorado critical care doctors we thought a buffalo doctor would a great mascot for ICU-READY. Throughout ICU-READY the buffalo doctor will be your guide for each knowledge bolus. Click the buffalo doctor in the top right of each knowledge bolus to see instructions as you work through ICU-READY.
Yes! ICU-READY is supported by an Open Educational Resources (OER) Creation Grant from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus OER Committee. The grant is designed to promote creation and dissemination of open access educational resources across the University of Colorado campuses and beyond.
This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator. It allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for noncommercial purposes only. Noncommercial means not primarily intended for or directed towards commercial advantage or monetary compensation. If others modify or adapt the material, they must license the modified material under identical terms.