The EfCCNa 2027 Congress offers a range of workshops designed to complement the scientific programme and provide participants with opportunities for hands-on learning, interactive discussions and the exchange of practical experience.

Led by experienced critical care professionals, these workshops will explore relevant topics, share new insights and encourage participants to actively engage with colleagues from across Europe and beyond.

Whether you are looking to develop new skills, deepen your knowledge or discover different approaches to everyday challenges in critical care nursing, our workshops offer an excellent opportunity to learn from one another and take fresh ideas back to your own clinical practice.

Explore the workshops below and discover which ones spark your interest!

Further workshops may be added as the programme develops.

Date: Thursday, 25 February
Workshop’s chair: Jimmy Schenk
Workshop’s main presenter: Pierette Oomes

The aim of this workshop is to help critical care nurses use haemodynamic dashboards in daily practice. After attending, participants will be able to explain the main parameters shown on an advanced haemodynamic dashboard, such as cardiac output (CO), stroke volume variation (SVV) and systemic vascular resistance (SVR). They will also recognise different haemodynamic profiles, such as hypovolaemia, vasoplegia and reduced contractility, and will be able to use dashboard trends to support clinical reasoning and nursing decisions at the bedside.

The workshop combines a short demonstration with interactive patient cases. It starts with the core dashboard parameters and one key message: trends and combined parameters tell us more than a single value. We show how a single falling blood pressure can mean very different things, and how CO, SVV and SVR together often point to the underlying problem. We also ask how participants monitor and act today.

We then work through three short patient cases, each built around a common bedside situation such as the hypotensive patient after surgery or the patient who is not responding to fluids. For each case, the audience sees the dashboard, votes on the haemodynamic profile (hypovolaemia, vasoplegia or reduced contractility) and chooses the next step, for example fluids, a vasopressor or an inotrope. We then reveal what actually happened and the reasoning behind it. Each case closes with a short moment in which participants practise translating interpretation of trends into a clear, structured message.

Date: Thursday, 25 February
Workshop’s chair and main presenter: Sabrina Pelz

Aim and objectives:

To strengthen participants’ ability to recognise the complex needs of patients with chronic critical illness, prioritise interprofessional care and plan a safe transition beyond the ICU.
A growing number of patients survive critical illness, but some progress into a prolonged phase of dependency, ongoing organ dysfunction and complex rehabilitation needs. Chronic critical illness (CCI) is commonly associated with prolonged intensive care treatment, prolonged mechanical ventilation or tracheostomy, and substantial physical, cognitive and psychological consequences. Post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) describes new or worsening impairments in physical, cognitive and/or mental health and may also affect family members (PICS-F). These patients remain at risk of fragmented care, delayed rehabilitation planning and poorly coordinated transitions from intensive care to ward, rehabilitation or home-based services.
This 60-minute interactive workshop addresses the needs of the chronic ICU patient from an nursing professional perspective. After a short evidence-based input on CCI, PICS/PICS-F and transition needs, participants will work on a structured case vignette of a patient after severe sepsis and ARDS with prolonged mechanical ventilation, tracheostomy, ICU-acquired weakness, recurrent delirium, swallowing difficulties and an exhausted family caregiver.
Using a facilitated 1–4–All approach, participants will reflect individually, exchange perspectives and prioritise care needs in small groups and share their conclusions in plenary. The focus will be on identifying the three most relevant priorities for the next 48 hours, translating these into concrete interprofessional interventions and considering the requirements for a safe transition beyond the ICU. The moderated discussion will address realistic rehabilitation goals, delirium prevention, communication, family involvement, information transfer and continuity of care.

Objectives:
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Recognise key features of chronic critical illness and post-intensive care syndrome (PICS) in a complex ICU case.
• Prioritise interprofessional care needs for the next 48 hours.
• Identify essential elements of a safe transition beyond the ICU.

The workshop requires no practical equipment and is suitable for nurses, advanced practice nurses and other professionals involved in intensive and post-ICU care.

Date: Thursday, 25 February
Workshop’s chair and main presenter: Hannah Wilson
Workshop’s chair: Margo van Mol

Aim and objectives:

Aim:
To support critical care nurses to meaningfully involve patients and families in clinical practice, quality improvement and research, thereby strengthening safer, more person-centred intensive care.

Objectives:
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Describe the value of patient and public involvement (PPI) in critical care practice, quality improvement and research.
• Identify timely and meaningful opportunities to engage patients and families across the critical care pathway.
• Recognise principles that support meaningful involvement, including inclusivity, psychological safety, transparency about influence and feedback to PPI contributors.
• Use an iceberg model to explore visible safety concerns in intensive care alongside less visible patterns, organisational structures and assumptions that may influence patient and family involvement.
• Develop one feasible, context-sensitive action to strengthen patient and family voice in their own ICU, education, quality-improvement or research setting.

Workshop content:
This interactive workshop will enable critical care nurses to explore how patient and family voices can strengthen safer, more person-centred intensive care practice, through quality improvement and research initiatives. PPI is especially important in critical care, where patients and families may have distinct experiences and priorities that are not fully represented in healthcare professional-led decision-making. However, nurses may be uncertain about when, how and with whom to undertake meaningful involvement. Through a series of interactive collaborative activities, participants will identify opportunities to meaningfully involve patients and their family in quality improvement and research initiatives, explore both visible and hidden safety concerns and consider an implementation action for how to strengthen the patient and family voice in their own critical care settings.

Date: Thursday, 25 February
Workshop’s chair and main presenter: Francesco Baiguera
Presenter: Emma Bresciani

Aim and objectives:
This workshop aims to give critical care nurses a practical, bedside-oriented understanding of respiratory mechanics monitoring during assisted mechanical ventilation. Objectives are to describe the physiological determinants of neural respiratory drive and transpulmonary pressure, to explain the risk of patient self-inflicted lung injury and myotrauma related to excessive or insufficient inspiratory effort, and to enable participants to measure and interpret bedside indices of effort at the ventilator screen.

Workshop content:
The theoretical session introduces the concept of neural respiratory drive and its supra-pontine, mechanical, biochemical and inflammatory inputs, then moves to transpulmonary pressure and the "iceberg" model of total lung stress, explaining how excessive intrathoracic pressure swings contribute to lung injury and diaphragm myotrauma. Four bedside, ventilator-derived indices are presented with their clinical thresholds:

• Airway occlusion pressure (P0.1);
• Pressure Muscle Index;
• Flow Index;
• Negative inspiratory force / maximal inspiratory pressure (NIF/MIP).

The practical session translates this framework into daily practice: clinical cases and real ventilator screenshots are presented to the whole audience, and participants reason together on what should be monitored and why, and on how to recognize inadequate or excessive respiratory effort from waveform inspection alone. The workshop closes by reinforcing that no monitoring tool replaces direct visual assessment of the patient at the bedside, and by consolidating take-home messages through open discussion.

Date: Thursday, 25 February
Workshop’s chair and main presenter: Kalliopi Kydonaki

Aim and objectives:

1. To define clinical behaviours that need to be changed to ensure the safety of the patient.
2. To identify barriers and facilitators to delirium management.
3. To consider the clinical behaviour that you would like to change in terms of Capability, Opportunity and Motivation.

Workshop content:

The workshop is divided in two parts. The first part will include a simulation scenario of a critically ill patient with delirium whose safety is compromised. Following the structure of an Escape Room, participants will role play and will be asked to complete a number of challenges in order to identify the pieces of a puzzle and “escape the room”. The challenges will help them to identify clinical behaviours, influences (elements that help or hinder the identified behaviour) and outcomes (what happens as a result of the behaviour). This part will last for 30 minutes. The second part consists of follow up feedback and discussion, which will be based on the COM-B model of behaviour change by Susan Michie and colleagues. The COM-B model is a framework to help clinicians understand and change human behaviour. The components of the COM-B (Capability, Opportunity and Motivation) will be analysed as the key factors capable of changing clinical behaviours. This part will last 30 minutes.

Date: Thursday, 25 February
Workshop’s chair and main presenter: Matej Mažič
Workshop's co-chair and main presenter: Anja Silvester
Main presenter: Marina Lukić

Aim and objectives:
To make participants aware of the awareness of resuscitation team members regarding the knowledge and handling of technical equipment during resuscitation and the appropriate professional training for performing resuscitation procedures in accordance with the guidelines of the European Resuscitation Council.

Workshop content:
To demonstrate with discussion:

• correct use of devices for establishing and maintaining a free airway
• correct technique of controlled ventilation during resuscitation
• quality of chest compressions
• appropriate use of mechanical devices for performing chest compressions
• vascular access techniques (classical, guided puncture, CVK)
• preparation and dilution of drugs and fluids during resuscitation
• safe and effective use of monitor and defibrillator
• importance of ultrasound use in resuscitation
• ecpr ecmo devices and their use in children.

Date: Thursday, 25 February
Workshop's chair and main presenter: Julie Benbenishty
Pre-registration for this workshop is required.

Target audience
ICU nurses, nurse educators, nurse researchers, advanced practice nurses, clinical nurse specialists, nurse managers, and other healthcare professionals working in intensive care.

Workshop description
Interactive workshop combining a short theoretical introduction, practical examples, small-group activities, and discussion.

Digitalization and the increasing availability of big data are rapidly transforming intensive care. Modern ICUs continuously generate enormous amounts of data from electronic health records, patient monitors, ventilators, infusion pumps, laboratory systems, medication records, clinical documentation, and other digital technologies.

What can ICU nurses actually do with all this data?
Nurses are among the healthcare professionals who spend the most time with critically ill patients and generate, interpret, document, and act upon large amounts of clinical information. Despite this central role, nurses are often primarily viewed as users of digital systems rather than as active partners in data-driven healthcare.

This workshop will introduce ICU nurses to the potential of digitalization and big data from a nursing and clinical perspective. Participants will explore how routinely collected ICU data can be transformed into meaningful information and used to support clinical decision-making, patient safety, quality improvement, research, prediction, and organizational change.

The workshop will move beyond the question of “What technology is available?” and focus on:
“What questions do ICU nurses have, and how can digital data help us answer them?”
Participants will work with practical ICU examples and consider how nurses can move from being data collectors → data interpreters → data users → data innovators.

Learning objectives
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Explain the concepts of digitalization, big data, and data-driven healthcare in the ICU context.
2. Identify different types of routinely collected ICU data that can be used for clinical, quality improvement, and research purposes.
3. Recognize opportunities for ICU nurses to use digital data to improve patient safety, quality of care, and clinical decision-making.
4. Develop a simple clinical or nursing question that could potentially be answered using routinely collected ICU data.
5. Discuss the ethical, professional, and practical challenges associated with using big data in intensive care, including privacy, data quality, bias, and the role of nurses in AI-supported decision-making.
6. Identify practical steps ICU nurses can take to become more active participants in digital and data-driven healthcare.

Date: Friday, 26 February
Workshop’s chair and main presenter: Willemke Stilma
Presenter: Hedvika Literová

Team: Members of the EfCCNa sustainability working group:
Alex Furmanov
Shelly Ashkenazy
Torunn Larssen Hansen
Jelena Slijepčević

Aim and objectives:
Quality of care is important and in an ICU it is a challenge to deliver sustainable care. We know we use a lot of disposables and energy, but we also tent to all we can that could possible add to saving lives. The green deal and climate change, urges us to deliver sustainable care. However, it can be a challenge to make steps in the organisation of care to provide more sustainable care.
The aim of this workshop is to share experiences on initiatives towards more sustainable care in the ICU. Secondly the workshop aims to help professionals during a hands-on session to make the first plan to initiate a more sustainable option of care within your ICU.

Workshop content:
The workshop will start with a short introduction on sharing examples of more sustainable care initiated by ICU nurses. Secondly the workshop will provide information and tools to start an initiative for more sustainable care in your own ICU.
During a hands-on session you will discuss challenges and solution with other ICU nurses and work out a first draft of a plan that could be possible to execute in your ICU when you are back home.

Date: Friday, 26 February
Workshop’s chair: Josef Trapani
Workshop’s co-chair: Peter Nydahl

Aim and objectives:
Publishing scientific work is essential for clinical research and professional development, yet many authors find the publication process challenging. This interactive workshop provides practical guidance on preparing, submitting, revising, and publishing scientific manuscripts while enabling participants to discuss their own questions directly with experienced journal editors. The objectives are to improve understanding of the editorial process, strengthen scientific writing skills, increase awareness of common reasons for manuscript rejection, promote the responsible use of artificial intelligence in scientific publishing, and discuss research integrity and scientific misconduct.

Workshop content:
The workshop combines concise presentations with interactive discussion and case-based learning. Both presenters began their careers as Critical Care Nurses in intensive care before pursuing academic careers. They have authored many peer-reviewed publications, experienced the publication process from the authors’ perspective, and now serve as Co-Editors-in-Chief of Nursing in Critical Care. Participants will first identify the topics most relevant to their own publishing experience. The session will cover manuscript preparation, article structure, scientific writing, reporting guidelines, authorship, response to reviewers and common pitfalls. The pathway from submission to editorial assessment, peer review, revision, and publication will be illustrated using practical examples and insights from editorial practice. Opportunities and limitations of artificial intelligence in manuscript preparation and language editing will be discussed, together with recommendations for transparent and responsible use. Scientific misconduct, including plagiarism, duplicate publication, image manipulation, and paper mills, will also be addressed. Throughout the workshop, participants will be encouraged to ask questions, discuss real-world scenarios, and share their own experiences. The content and emphasis will be guided by the audience, creating an open “Meet the Editors” forum that offers practical advice and supports researchers at all stages of their publishing careers.

Date: Friday, 26 February
Workshop’s chair and organizer: Siv K. Stafseth and Ann Margret Hasselgård

Workshop’s team:
Arnaud Bruyneel
Ann-Margret Hasselgård
Elaine Machado de Oliviera
Alberto Lucchini

Aim and objectives:
This cafe aimed to present new evidence on intention to leave and workload among intensive care unit (ICU) nurses, based on large multicentre studies and register data.

Workshop content:
Across 54 ICUs, 1,235 nurses answered an online questionnaire. Almost one-third reported an intention to leave their current employer within the next year. This intention was strongly associated with an unfavourable work environment, conditions of iso-strain, prolonged absenteeism, and lack of specific intensive care training among new nurses. These findings underline how organizational factors and formal preparation for ICU work directly influence retention.
In a second study, 3,476 critical care nurses in 12 ICUs completed the NASA Task Load Index (NASA TLX) to assess subjective workload in six dimensions: mental, physical, and temporal demand, performance, effort, and frustration. The mean score was 48.8 (SD 17.5), which corresponds to a high workload in healthcare research. Subjective workload showed significant associations with objective workload, measured using the Nursing Activities Score (NAS), and with nurse demographics such as years of experience. This demonstrates that both measurable care demands and staff characteristics shape how workload is perceived and tolerated.
We further examine NAS in vascular surgery patients in Brazil and Quebec City, Canada, critically discussing whether NAS is a useful tool for quantifying nursing workload and planning staffing in these complex surgical patients. Finally, we present register data from Italy and consider how such large-scale figures on workload, staffing, and outcomes can inform future workforce planning and policy at unit, hospital, and national levels.

Conclusion:
Together, these studies highlight that the voices of critical care nurses are essential for designing sufficient introduction and training programs, and for levelling workload in ICUs. Building a sustainable ICU nursing workforce requires evidence based strategies that protect staff well being and support long term retention.

Date: Friday, 26 February
Workshop’s chair: Jos Latour

Aim and objectives:
This workshop will be an interactive forum where European critical care nurses collectively identify barriers and facilitators to human-centred care in ICUs and co-developed actionable strategies for implementation across adult and paediatric settings.

Workshop content:
Human-centred care in the ICU integrates the needs, values and preferences of patients, families and staff into daily practice. Despite growing evidence supporting its benefits, implementation remained inconsistent across European ICUs. The congress theme, listen to the voice of critical care nurses in Europe, offers an ideal platform to elevate critical care nurses' perspectives. This workshop will explore the experiences of European critical care nurses of how human-centred care has been operationalised in clinical practice. After a brief outline of human-centred care in the ICU, the workshop will be structured in three phases:

• In the Listening phase, participants will share their experiences of delivering care, focusing on moments where human-centred principles are present or absent.
• In the Analysing phase, small groups will examine case scenarios including family presence at resuscitation, dignity in critical illness, communication during end-of-life care and nurse wellbeing, applicable across adult and paediatric ICU settings.
• In the Acting phase, each group will develop one practical, implementable commitment to advance human-centred care in their critical care setting. Structured debriefing and consensus techniques will be used to synthesise cross-country insights. The workshop outputs, a shared set of priority actions and a practical toolkit, will support nurses that are directly relevant to European critical care practice, research, and education. Embedding human-centred care required nurse-led initiatives and institutional support.

The findings of this workshop can inform EfCCNa member associations seeking to advance human-centred care in the ICU and amplified the voice of critical care nurses in shaping European ICU practice.

Date: Friday, 26 February
Workshop’s main presenter: Eva Åkerman

Aim and objectives:
To provide knowledge and tools for writing a clear and structured abstract.

Workshop content:
Many intensive care nurses conduct clinical quality project or research projects, but face challenges when summarizing their findings in an abstract. This interactive workshop provides participants with practical tools for writing clear, well-structured abstracts. Through brief lectures, analysis of examples, and group discussions, participants practice formulating the background, aim, method, results, and conclusions. The workshop is aimed to intensive care nurses with different levels of experience in scientific writing and seeks to boost participants´ ability in preparing abstracts for conferences and other scientific contexts.

Date: Friday, 26 February
Workshop’s main presenter: Katerina Iliopoulou

Aim and objectives:
The aim of the workshop is to provide a brief, practice-oriented introduction to the use of behavioural and implementation science tools to understand and improve the implementation of evidence-based IPC practices in intensive care units (ICUs).

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Recognise how IPC behaviours are influenced by individual, social, organisational, environmental, and cultural factors.
• Apply the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) model to identify behavioural barriers and facilitators influencing a selected IPC behaviour and use the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to identify contextual influences on implementation.
• Identify and justify feasible actions to address one or more barriers to, or build on facilitators of, a target IPC behaviour.

Workshop content:
Interactive presentation: 15 minutes.
Participants will work together in groups and will be provided exercise sheets or cards to practise the following (40 minutes).

1. Identify an IPC problem.
2. Spot an IPC behaviour.
3. Shift thinking from ‘’which IPC practice should we use’’ to ‘’What is driving the behaviour, and what needs to change?’’
4. Mini COM-B diagnosis.
5. Move from diagnosis to action.

Wrap-up: 5 minutes.