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• Call for Papers
• Author Instructions [ PDF ]
• Authorship, Financial Disclosure, Copyright Transfer, and Acknowledgment Form [ PDF ]
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Reviewers

• Guidelines for Reviewers PDF
• Manuscript Review Form PDF
• Interactive Resource File Form (Word document)
• Resource File Form PDF
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Call for Papers

Papers are invited for Critical Care Nurse, a peer-reviewed journal. Critical Care Nurse publishes papers in all areas of high-acuity and critical care; however, the following topics have been identified by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses as critical care nurses' top 10 concerns (in alphabetical order):

Top 10 Concerns

• Barrier precautions and resistant organisms
  
• Central catheter infections
  
• Deep venous thrombosis precautions
  
• Documentation, time consumed with documentation
  
• Gastric tube placement and location verification
  
• Identifying and managing delirium
  
• Managing sedation
  
• Patient mobility
  
• Preventable infections
  
• Safety when transporting critical care patients for tests and procedures
  
• Wound care and pressure ulcers

Critical Care Nurse is also interested in receiving papers on the following topics:

• New developments, advancements, or updates on nursing care, treatments, or procedures
  
• Cutting-edge medical or surgical therapies
  
• Evidence-based practice
  
• Exemplars of effective and successful nursing interventions
  
• Best practices for acute and critical care conditions
  
• Critical care pharmacology updates
  
• New diagnostic tests
  
• Advances in patient monitoring
  
• Case studies of patients with unique or unusual disorders or clinical situations
  
• Care of the critically ill obstetric and postpartum patient
  
• Providing critical care nursing services in nontraditional care sites such as ambulatory care, transport, and disaster settings
  
• Transitioning patients to home care
  
• Multidisciplinary collaboration in managing patient care
  
• Critical pathways, and patient care protocols for critical care

Academic education

• Critical care experiences in basic nursing education programs
  
• Preparing and supporting staff to serve as preceptors for students
  
• Instructional resources
  
• Resolving student placement problems
  
• Negotiating contracts with clinical facilities
  
• Computer- and Web-based instructional resources for students

Advanced practice

• Differential diagnosis of acute and critical care conditions
  
• Treatment practices for acute care conditions
  
• Collaboration of advanced practice nurses with staff nurses, clinical nurse specialists, nurse managers, medical staff, and allied health staff
  
• Acute care nurse practitioner issues, education, certification, and reimbursement
  
• Return of clinical nurse specialist

AIDS

• Advances in understanding and treating people with AIDS

Cardiovascular medicine

• Hemodynamic monitoring
  
• Advances in management of acute myocardial infarction
  
• Management of acute and chronic heart failure
  
• Use of vasoactive drips, inotropic support, thrombolytic therapy

Cardiovascular surgery

• Chest tubes and drains
  
• Managing complications
  
• Femoral sheaths
  
• Updates on new surgical procedures

Complementary therapies

• Spirituality in critical care nursing
  
• Creating a healing environment
  
• Efficacy of various complementary therapies in the critically ill

Cultural diversity

• Responding effectively to cultural aspects of patient and family care
  
• Minimizing language barriers
  
• Dealing with diversity issues among staff ECGs and pacemakers
  
• Advanced ECG interpretation
  
• Unique ECG cases
  
• Advanced pacemaker rhythms

Ethics

• End-of-life care
  
• Ethical and legal aspects of practice
  
• Resolving ethical conflicts effectively and expeditiously

Geriatrics

• Special needs and tailoring care for the elderly patient
  
• Restraint policies and procedures that meet JCAHO requirements
  
• Recognizing and managing elder abuse

Immunology

• Immunosuppression
  
• Advances in understanding immune system disorders
  
• Managing anaphylactic reactions and immunologic emergencies

Infection control

• Antibiotic-resistant organisms
  
• New therapies
  
• Unique case studies in infectious diseases

Management

• Case management and critical pathways for specific patient populations
  
• Staffing programs that work
  
• Mentoring programs
  
• Strategies for achieving magnet status
  
• Staffing: patient acuity/classification systems, floating, using registry staff, optimal staffing ratios and skill mix, staffing policies, work schedules and shifts
  
• Coping with mergers, redesigns, and downsizing
  
• Patient admission and discharge criteria
  
• Catheterization lab and radiology policies and procedures
  
• Guidelines for supervision and delegation; resolving problems with delegation
  
• Legal aspects of delegation, supervision, and assignment acceptance

Military critical care nursing

• Aspects of critical care nursing unique to any branch of the military
  
• Working with and developing clinical support staff such as corpsmen

Neonatal

• Unique needs of the neonate
  
• Managing neonatal emergencies
  
• Resources for neonatal nurses on specific patient populations
  
• Neonatal transport
  
• Supporting parents and siblings of neonates

Neurologic

• Sedation and pain management; sedation scales
  
• Neuro trauma
  
• New therapies for managing stroke
  
• Monitoring and managing intracranial pressure

Nutrition

• Enteral feeds and feeding tubes
  
• Nutritional issues in the critically ill
  
• Use of gastric pH

Pediatrics

• Unique needs of the pediatric critical care patient
  
• Managing pediatric emergencies
  
• Resources for pediatric critical care nurses
  
• Supporting parents and siblings of pediatric patients

Postanesthesia recovery

• Newer anesthetic agents
  
• Recovering critically ill patients from anesthesia
  
• Recognizing and managing postanesthesia recovery emergencies

Progressive care

• Policies, procedures, and protocols
  
• Competencies
  
• Telemetry best practices
  
• How it differs from critical care

Psychiatric issues

• Recognizing and managing psychiatric problems in the critically ill
  
• Managing the client with substance abuse
  
• Psychiatric complications in the critically ill
  
• Dealing with dysfunctional families

Pulmonary

• Advances in patient care
  
• Managing patients on various forms of mechanical ventilation
  
• Ventilator-associated pneumonia

Staff development

• Assessing and developing staff competency; competency measurement and validation tools
  
• Effective and efficient orientation programs
  
• Patient and family education programs
  
• Orientation and continuing education programs for unlicensed personnel
  
• Preceptor training and support

Toxicology

• Pathophysiology of toxic ingestions
  
• Protocols and algorithms for managing toxic ingestion
  
• Case studies of unique toxicology cases

Transplantation

• Advances in organ and tissue transplantation
  
• New pharmacologic therapies for the transplant patient

Trauma

• Multisystem trauma
  
• Neuro trauma
  
• Emergency care of the trauma patient
  
• Interfacility transport
  

Author Instructions for Critical Care Nurse [ PDF ]

CRITICAL CARE NURSE is an official publication of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Authors are invited to submit manuscripts for consideration and peer review. Clinical topics must apply directly to the care of critically and acutely ill patients and their families, with case presentations and clinical tips especially welcome.

Send manuscripts to:
Grif Alspach, RN, MSN, EdD
Editor, CRITICAL CARE NURSE
P.O. Box 6680
Annapolis, MD 21401-0680
GrifCCN{at}comcast.net

Submissions are usually acknowledged within 2 weeks of receipt in the editorial office. If you do not receive acknowledgment, write (P.O. Box 6680, Annapolis, MD 21401) or e-mail (CCNmailbox@hotmail.com) the Editor, Grif Alspach. CRITICAL CARE NURSE accepts no responsibility for lost or mislaid materials, so authors are advised to keep copies in their possession. All manuscripts are subject to peer review and copyediting.

Cover Letter
Please include a cover letter with the name, address, telephone numbers (home and work), fax number, and e-mail address of the author to whom all correspondence should be addressed.

Authorship, Financial Disclosure, Copyright Transfer, and Acknowledgment Form
All accepted authors will be required to sign an authorship disclosure statement and copyright transfer. [ PDF ]

Manuscript Content
Title Page
The title page of a manuscript should contain the following:

• Title of manuscript, which should be to the point and reflect the substance of the manuscript
• Authors' full names, with degrees, credentials, and institutional affiliations, as well as addresses
• Three to 5 key words for indexing

Feature Articles
Feature articles should generally not exceed 15 double-spaced typed pages, excluding references, tables, and figures. Use of such visual elements as tables and figures, as well as sidebars and bibliography to convey additional information, is strongly encouraged; these elements should augment, not duplicate, information from the text.

• Submit the paper without any information that may identify the author(s).
• Add Line Numbers, a function in Microsoft Word, to each page. The line numbering is not visible in Normal view, but can be seen in Print Preview or Print Layout views.
• Save a complete electronic copy of the paper in a single file and name it CCNms0000-A_forReviewdoc.
• Prepare 2 electronic copies of the file on 2 CDs.
• Mail 2 printed copies with the 2 CDs to CCN's editorial office (see address above).
• To expedite the peer review process, e-mail a copy of your "For Review" version of the paper to CCNmailbox@hotmail.com.

Key Points
Summary of Key Points should be typed on a separate sheet and should summarize, in a few sentences, the critical information the author intends for the reader to take away from the article.

References
References should be double-spaced at the end of the text. Number them consecutively by their order of appearance in the text and designate reference numbers as superscripts in the text. References cited in tables and figures are numbered sequentially as if they are cited where the table and figure is first cited in the text. Do not use any word processing footnote function. If a source lists more than 6 authors, list only the first 3, followed by ?et al.? Follow the American Medical Association Manual of Style, 9th edition for format and punctuation, shown below.

• For Journals: Last name and initials (no periods) of authors, title of article (capitalize only the first word, proper names, and abbreviations normally capitalized; no quotation marks), journal title (italicize and use Index Medicus abbreviations), year of publication, volume, inclusive page numbers. Example:
  1. Reed FD, Watson NP. Nursing care of the patient withcardiomyopathy. Am J Nurs. 1985;4:121-124.

• For Books: Last name and initials of authors; title of book (italicize and capitalize all significant words); edition number (if after first edition); last name and initials of editor if any; city and state of publication; publisher; year of publication; page numbers (only if specifically cited). Example:
  2. Carlson AK. Critical Care Nursing Process. 3rd ed. Boston, Mass: Beacon Hill Press; 1985:245-252.

• For Book Chapters: Last name and initials of authors; title of chapter; ?In:? followed by last name and initials of editors, ?ed.?; title of book, etc, as above. Example:
  3. Schiffman JD. Immunology of influenza. In: Cane MB, ed. Viruses and Influenza. Orlando, Fla: Academic Press; 1990:191-196.

Bibliography
Unnumbered references, in the form of a selected reading list, are rarely used in AMA journals. If they are, these references would appear alphabetically in a list separate from the specifically cited reference list.

Tables
Submit each table as a separate text file. Each table must be numbered (consecutively in the order mentioned in the text) and titled. Each column within a table should have a heading. Abbreviations must be explained in a footnote.

Figures
Submit original, unmounted, untrimmed black-and-white or color glossy prints. The back of each print should note the figure number and orientation of the figure (top/left/right). Include signed consent/release from owner of photo or artist if different from author. Include signed consent/release forms from all identifiable individuals. If permission from subjects is not obtained, photographs will be cropped appropriately. All photographs should be glossy prints or digital files of at least 300 dpi. Do not send files downloaded from the Internet, as these are low-resolution and will reproduce poorly in print. The preferred file formats are TIFF and EPS. JPG and BMP are accepted but not preferred, as these are also low resolution. We can scan crisp, clean photographs if they contain no writing. Do not submit any art in Microsoft applications. For printing purposes, the original art that was placed into these applications is required. For figures such as graphs, data points should be provided in a separate text file. Figure legends should be typed double-spaced in consecutive order on a new manuscript page. Contact the editorial office for further information (800-809-2273 or 949-448-7370).

Releases
If any material in the manuscript is from a previously copyrighted publication, include a letter of permission to reproduce the material from both the author and the copyright holder.

Patient Descriptions, Photographs, and Pedigrees<
Include a signed statement of informed consent to publish (in print and online) patient descriptions, photographs, and pedigrees from all persons (parents or legal guardians for minors) who can be identified in such written descriptions, photographs, or pedigrees. Such persons should be shown the manuscript before its submission.

Manuscript Preparation
All material must be double-spaced, on white paper, with margins of at least 1 inch on all sides. Number all pages sequentially, including the summary of key points, references, bibliography, tables, and figures. Submit 4 complete copies of the manuscript and illustrations (tables and figures).

Drug Names
Use generic names only. The trade name of a particular drug may be cited in parentheses the first time the generic name appears.

Units of Measurement
Physiologic measurements should be reported in metric units (International System of Units, SI); conventional units may be placed in parenthesis after the SI units. Use metric units or decimal multiples for length, height, weight, and volume. Show temperature in degrees Celsius, blood pressure in millimeters of mercury, and volume (liquid and gas) in milliliters, not cubic centimeters.

Abbreviations and Symbols
Avoid nonstandard abbreviations. Use the full term for an abbreviation or symbol on first reference, unless it is a standard unit of measure.

Checklist for Authors
Arrange materials in the following order:
Cover letter (include name, home and work addresses, home and work telephone numbers, fax number, and e-mail address of corresponding author)
Authorship, Financial Disclosure, Copyright Transfer, and Acknowledgment Form (2 copies on separate sheets, signed and dated
Brief (1 to 2 sentences) biography of each author (typed double-spaced; 2 copies).

Submit 2 electronic copies of the following manuscript components on 2 CDs and mail 2 printed copies with the CDs to the editorial office:
Title page (submitted as a separate file) includes title of manuscript; name(s), professional credentials, institutional or academic affiliation(s), city and state of all authors in the order intended for publication; and key words for indexing: 3 to 5 search terms
Text of manuscript (number as page 1; double-spaced)
Summary of Key Points (include as numbered page; double-spaced on separate sheet)
References (include as numbered pages; double-spaced on separate sheet; follow reference style described in these guidelines)
Acknowledgments, disclaimers, sources of financial support (double-spaced)
Tables (double-spaced, 1 per page; numbered consecutively; include title for each)
Figure legends (separate sheet; double-spaced)
Illustrations (1 per page; number and label on back); originals and 3 copies enclosed in protective envelope
Permissions to publish identifiable persons in photographs, copyrighted materials and any material not belonging to author (2 copies)
A third CD that contains a single file of the complete manuscript, with all identifying information removed (ie, title page, running headers and footers, file properties, and acknowledgment)

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Critical Care Nurse
Authorship, Financial Disclosure, Copyright Transfer, and Acknowledgment Form
[ PDF ]

Manuscript Review Form

Resource File Form
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