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About
The Emergency Practice, Interventions and Care – Canada (EPICC) Program is Canada’s National Emergency Nursing course endorsed by the National Emergency Nurses Association (NENA). It is based on the NENA Core Competencies of the Emergency Nurse.
The program is split into three functional areas:
EPICC Design, Research and Quality Team
All curriculum design, content development and review
NENA National Course Administration Committee
Coordination of course delivery through private providers
National Emergency Nurses Association
Core Competencies & Partial Funding
Courses
The Theme of EPICC
EPICC is more than a course, it is an experience with the ultimate goal being to develop the emergency practitioners mindset in approaching all emergency department patients. In the context of the safe learning environment, EPICC has three fundamental tenets:
A High Fidelity & Safe Learning Environment
Self and Teams
This objective assists the learner is discovering their role within a team and how they communicate within those teams.
Planning Care
This objective relates to the planning around the care of the Emergency Department patient. Care planning focuses on problem identification, objective outcome measures and planning steps for achieving the outcomes.
Searching for Points of Failure
The approach to every situation seeking out gaps in care or communication to ensure the safest patient care possible.
It is important to understand the differentiation between high-fidelity and high-technology. High-fidelity is the realism of a situation, high-technology is the ‘fanciness’ of simulation mannikins. EPICC uses high-fidelity simulation and in some environments may incorporate high-technology mannikins.
EPICC uses evidence-based learning and assessment methods to fully engage the adult learner. Theoretical content is learned online before attending the course. The programs use mixed learning methods of small and large group case studies and simulation – there is no powerpoint-style learning at the attended sessions. The programs leverage the “community”…when everyone is together at a course, we believe that learners should be interacting, not watching lectures.
There are currently four programs under the EPICC umbrella. Please choose one for further information.
Rollout Updates & Blog
EPICC-Trauma at CAEP Conference
The first EPICC-Trauma in Alberta was run as a pre-conference session to the CAEP Conference on May 26, 2018! Thanks to the great group of nurses who participated and the Foothills Medical Centre for assisting with the facility!
EPICC Two Years In…
We are so excited to be celebrating our two-year anniversary of the start of EPICC this month. From our beginnings with EPICC-Foundations we have now seen the introduction of EPICC-Trauma and the completion of content for EPICC-Pediatrics (stay tuned for more info soon). Organizations throughout Canada have provided 104 programs across the Country with another …
EPICC Featured at CAEP and NENA Conferences
We are totally thrilled that EPICC-Trauma is a pre-conference session at both the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians conference in Calgary and the National Emergency Nurses Association conference in Kelowna. Want more info? Check out nena.ca or caep.ca
Course Development Team & Process
Landon James, RN, BSN, MA, PCP, CEN
Managing Editor & Project Leader
Monique McLaughlin, RN, BSN, MSN, NP-F
Managing Editor & Facilitator Development Leader
Mélanie Marceau, RN, BSN, MSN, PhD(c)
Lead Editor & Scientific Leader
Brian Lee, RN, BSN
Lead Editor
Denis Bouchard, RN
Lead Editor & Official Languages Leader
Development Process
EPICC is a continually evolving program with new courses and revisions to current content being performed simultaneously. The program began in 2015 with a curriculum design process and brainstorming session.
For the first program (EPICC-Foundations) development of online learning content occurred in the Summer of 2015 with a review period into 2016. EPICC-Trauma content development began in October 2016 and is currently being reviewed for final publication.
The EPICC-Foundations program had the following development process:
- May 2015-October 2015 – Curriculum and Content Design/Production
- October 2015 – Design Team Meeting
- December 2015 – Curriculum and Methods Test Group with 24 Experienced Nurse Educators
- January 2016 – Design Team Meeting
- February 2016 – Test Course with Mixture of Student Experience
- March 2016 – Test Course with Mixture of Student Experience
- May 2016 – Release of Course in English and French
- 2016-2017 – Minor Revisions to Online and In-Person Content
The EPICC-Trauma Program has the following development process:
- May 2016-November 2016 – Curriculum Design and Online Content Production
- December 2016 – Design Team Meeting
- February 2017 – Focused test of Some Content
- April 2017 – Test Course #1 and #2
- July 2017 – Test Course #3
- September 2017 – Anticipated Release of Course in English and French
The process for both courses has had well-over 100 nurses involved in various capacities from authors to content reviewers to test students.
The newest project, EPICC-Pediatrics, has a proposed timeline below and is subject to change as the project progresses.
- July 28, 2017 – Project Team and Content Developer Applications Due
- August 31, 2017 – Tentative Finalization of Core Competencies of Program
- September-October 2017 – Content Development
- November 2017 – Peer Review
- February-March 2018 – Test Courses
- April-May 2018 – Proposed Release