Ventilator Academy and online resources: Mechanical ventilator training made easy

Help your staff be well-prepared to handle the increasing demands of ventilated patients by using our online resources, including Ventilator Academy. This self-paced curriculum provides a detailed overview of how to operate and manage mechanical ventilator equipment such as the Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator. Plus, you’ll find thorough resources on supporting patient care during mechanical ventilation. In this blog post, we’ll walk you through the Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator and mechanical ventilation with our online resources:

• Ventilator Academy: Fundamentals of Mechanical Ventilation
• Ventilator Academy: Mechanical Ventilator Product Training Curriculum
• Ventilation Virtual Training and Online Courses
• Early Mobility in the ICU Resources

Understanding mechanical ventilation for optimizing patient care with Ventilator Academy

Helping your patient have a positive outcome requires you and your team to have adequate knowledge of best practices for managing mechanically ventilated patients. With Ventilator Academy, you can explore ventilation concepts throughout the patient journey. Whether you need a refresher on the basics or deeper training to understand concepts and strategies that help, our Ventilator Academy offers a wide variety of courses:

• Anatomy and physiology of a normal functioning respiratory system Understanding the normal functions of ventilation and circulation. This course provides details on how the ventilation perfusion relationship assists in the holistic need for mechanical ventilation.
• Respiratory failure In this Ventilator Academy course, you’ll learn how certain conditions are associated with respiratory failure and how to prevent and manage them.
• Pulmonary mechanics: resistance, compliance, and elastance This video explores the varied types of ventilator inflation and their association with airway resistance.
• Airway support during ventilation Your team must understand how to collectively manage airway support when intervention is necessary, and this course provides strategies on how to effectively support your team.
• Basic modes of ventilation Strategizing mechanical ventilation needs for your patient requires clinician experience, but also equipment availability. Explore the various approaches to patient mechanical ventilation.
• Patient journey: prevention of adverse outcomes After a patient is liberated and discharged from a ventilator, they may still be recovering from the resounding impacts. Understand patient experiences from their lens to improve care delivery.
• Sedation Under-sedating patients may cause adverse outcomes, but so can over-sedating. View this Ventilator Academy course to understand sedation management for all phases of mechanical ventilation.
• Synchrony Know when your patient is experiencing asynchrony and how to apply treatment strategies to help prevent adverse outcomes.
• Mobility Ensuring your patients do not experience diaphragm atrophy and respiratory muscle weakness helps you prevent and manage intensive care unit acquired weakness (ICUAW).
• Presenting VILI and VIDD It’s possible for patients to incur respiratory and diaphragm injuries with mechanical ventilation. Knowing how to prevent and treat this may advance patient outcomes.
• Preventing VAP  One of the more common hospital-acquired infections is ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Knowing the prevention principles and how to spot VAP is important for positive patient outcomes.
• Ability to breathe: definition and awareness Explore work of breathing (WOB), during ventilation and when defining goals for mechanical ventilation liberation.
• Challenges of weaning In this Ventilator Academy course, we’ll help you understand the challenges of weaning patients from mechanical ventilation and explore ways to minimize these challenges.
• Spontaneous awakening trials and spontaneous breathing trials Patients receiving mechanical ventilation run the risk of several adverse events. Know how and when to deploy spontaneous awakening trials (SATs) and spontaneous breathing trials (SBTs) to improve their outcomes.

Puritan Bennett™ 980 ventilator foundational and advanced training

In addition to our Ventilator Academy, we offer online ventilator training with the option to receive AARC/CSRT or ANCC accreditation. Courses include:

• Healthstream™*: Advanced Pressure Control Ventilation Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) experience lung inflammation, which may result in a moderate to severe loss of lung function. This course expands on the options for these patients.
• Healthstream™*: Interpretation of Ventilator Waveforms Ventilator graphics or waveforms provide clinicians with important information about the functionality of the ventilator as well as the status of the patient. This continuing education activity provides respiratory care professionals with the information needed to analyze ventilator waveform graphics in order to appropriately manage ventilated patients.
• Healthstream™*: Mechanical Ventilation: Pressure, Volume, and Dual Modes Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) experience lung inflammation that results in a moderate to severe loss of lung function. This continuing education activity will review the basics of pressure-control ventilation, volume-control ventilation, and dual modes of ventilation.
• Healthstream™*: Mechanical Ventilator Settings to Optimize Patient-Ventilator Synchrony Ventilator asynchrony, or a mismatch between patient and ventilator breaths, commonly occurs in ventilated patients. This continuing education activity will review ventilator settings and discuss how they can be adjusted to promote optimal patient-ventilator synchrony.
• Healthstream™*: Sedation Management of the Mechanically Ventilated Patient in the ICU This online activity will focus on sedation management in the ICU, including the experience of the ventilated patient, sedation of the ventilated patient, and clinical practices for appropriately managing sedation.

Related: Unsure what type of ventilator your patient needs? Read this article on the optimal ventilator for your critical care patients.

Ventilation Virtual Training and Online Courses

We offer online ventilator training with the option to receive AARC/CSRT or ANCC accreditation. Available courses include:

• Healthstream™*: Advanced Pressure Control Ventilation. Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) experience lung inflammation, which may result in a moderate to severe loss of lung function. This course expands on the options for these patients.
• Healthstream™*: Interpretation of Ventilator Waveforms. Ventilator graphics or waveforms provide clinicians with important information about the functioning of the ventilator as well as the status of the patient. This continuing education activity will provide respiratory care professionals with the information they need to analyze ventilator waveform graphics in order to appropriately manage ventilated patients.
• Healthstream™*: Mechanical Ventilation: Pressure, Volume, and Dual Modes. Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) experience lung inflammation which results in a moderate to severe loss of lung function. This continuing education activity will review the basics of pressure-control ventilation, volume-control ventilation, and dual modes of ventilation.
• Healthstream™*: Mechanical Ventilator Settings to Optimize Patient-Ventilator Synchrony. Ventilator asynchrony, or a mismatch between patient and ventilator breaths, commonly occurs in ventilated patients. This continuing education activity will review ventilator settings and discuss how they can be adjusted to promote optimal patient-ventilator synchrony.
• Healthstream™*: Sedation Management of the Mechanically Ventilated Patient in the ICU. This online activity will focus on sedation management in the ICU including the experience of the ventilated patient, sedation of the ventilated patient, and clinical practices for the appropriate management of sedation.

Related: Our training is designed to help you provide innovative solutions and optimize patient care. View the full library of training courses, downloads, and other educational materials.

Early Mobility in the ICU Resources

In the ICU, motion means life. Bundled with other interventions, early mobility addresses complications associated with extended periods of sedation, mechanical ventilation, and bed rest. Check out these resources to learn more about weaning and mobility in the ICU:

• Early mobility overview Dr. Wischmeyer of Duke University gives an overview of the challenges associated with early mobility and the importance of implementing protocols.
• Early mobility for nurses As a nurse, you’re often the first to see the effects of immobility. But how do you know when a patient is ready to move?
• Early mobility for intensivists Automatic physical therapy referrals. Scheduling procedures around early mobility exercises. There are a lot of options that ICU clinicians can consider to make patient mobility a priority.
• Early mobility for hospital administrators Administrative support can make all the difference when it comes to getting an early mobility program off the ground in your ICU.
• Early mobility for respiratory therapists Early mobility may help get patients ready to leave the ICU. But as a respiratory therapist, how do you get a patient ready for early mobility?

Related: Learn how you can dispel some of the common misconceptions about early mobility programs.

© 2022 Medtronic. All rights reserved. Medtronic, Medtronic logo, and Engineering the extraordinary are trademarks of Medtronic. *Third-party brands are trademarks of their respective owners. All other brands are trademarks of a Medtronic company. US-RE-2200422

TOPIC: Puritan Bennett™ Ventilators