In view of developing and expanding our activities, and further involving our members, we are pleased to announce that ESPNIC has the following sections to support its various scientific activities.
Our members can join ESPNIC’s Scientific Sections. Please note that you may be a member of multiple sections. You may select or change your membership choice here anytime. If you need technical support, please email our membership services.
Mission
Striving towards excellence together
Focus
To establish a strong, sustainable and effective platform for Paediatric Cardiac Intensive Care in Europe for the present and for the future. The aim is to connect, inspire, support and empower like-minded intensivists and allied professionals/nursing in the promotion of cardiac intensive care including ECLS, thus ensuring the best possible outcomes for neonates, infants, and children with congenital or acquired cardiac disease in Europe and worldwide.
Objectives
1) To promote and develop educational activities – virtual/online educational packages on ESPNIC Education portal, e-learning resources, simulation, echocardiography, cardiac ICU/ECMO/MCS curriculum and career development for future intensivists
2) To consolidate inter-section collaboration within ESPNIC, and
3) To develop strong collaborations with cardiac & MCS related European societies for education and research.
Ongoing Research
A survey of Paediatric Cardiac ICUs in Europe (demographics, medical and nursing staffing, training provision and research interests). The survey is open to all who units caring for children with cardiac conditions. Please contact Aparna.hoskote@gosh.nhs.uk and angelo.polito@hcuge.ch for further information on this and other Section activities.
Chair: Malaika Mendonca
Deputy Chair: Francesca Sperotto
Find here the 2023 Report
Find here the 2023 Needs Assessment Results
The aim of the Cardiovascular Dynamics section is to support education, research and development of guidelines in hemodynamic physiology, monitoring and treatment in critically ill children of all ages. It is the ambition of the section to be a reference point for pediatric intensivists with an interest in cardiovascular dynamics and to increase collaboration with others.
Chair: Yogen Singh
Deputy Chair: Javier Urbano
The aim of the Critical Care Nephrology section is to focus on education and research activities in the field of Acute kidney injury (AKI) and renal replacement therapy (RRT) in children. We aim to provide practical and evidence-based education in these areas to improve the delivery of various modalities of RRT to critically sick children admitted to intensive care units in order to improve the outcomes of these children.
Current research activities:
- Survey of the current practice of renal replacement therapy across European units
- Structuring a postgraduate course on Critical care nephrology and a hands-on workshop on renal replacement therapy in children
- To write a textbook of clinical cases of CRRT
- To organize multicenter research about predilution and post-dilution flows on drug metabolism
- To write ESPNIC CRRT protocol
Future :
- Core-curriculum for medical and nursing staff delivering RRT to children in Paediatric intensive care units
- Integrate the training of Critical Care Nephrology into the European diploma and make it accessible and affordable
- To organize inter-institutional international rotation of the fellows by identifying institutions of CRRT excellence
- To manage to partner small outlying PICUs with larger regional PİCUs through telemedicine connections
Chair: Demet Demirkol
Deputy Chair: Gérard Cortina
The ESPNIC Infection, Inflammation, and Sepsis Section bring together leading researchers and clinicians in these fields across Europe. We aim to address priorities of common challenges requiring evidence-based solutions applicable to settings in European ICU. We foster state-of-the-art education on key topics pertinent to infection, inflammation, and sepsis in critically ill children, as well as a collaborative research program on priorities in the field.
Research projects: the following focus areas are proposed to be prioritized for 2022
- Blood purification in critically ill children
- Development of Antibiotic Stewardship Guidelines for PICUs
- Quality improvement in targeting pediatric sepsis in Europe
Chair: Luregn Schlapbach
Deputy Chair: Gabriella Bottari
The aim of the Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition section is to provide the optimal nutritional and metabolic support to ensure the best short- and long-term outcomes for every critically ill child. We need to elucidate the causes and consequences of metabolic and nutritional changes in critically ill children. This will pave the way forward to individualized nutrition and treatment in the right modality at the right time of the disease course.
Current Research Activities:
In 2022 we expect to publish the new recommendations on Intravenous Maintenance fluids for acute and critically ill children, led by Frederic Valla.
Chair: Sascha Verbruggen
Deputy Chair: Lynne Latten
The aim of the Neonatal Critical Care Section is to promote the best evidence-based practice, advocate for infants and their families and improve neonatal outcomes; building national and international collaboration platforms to enhance clinical effectiveness across Europe and beyond.
We are working in conjunction with Neonatal Nursing Care Section and the other ESPNIC sections.
We are aspiring to create a robust platform with a holistic approach to support neonatal professionals, vulnerable patients and their families, Incorporating as many as possible professionals working in neonatal critical care from most of the European Countries, in collaboration with the Local-National Societies of Neonatology and Neonatal Nurses in Europe.
In summary, our aim is to address many aspects of medical and nursing care for newborn babies, focusing on:
- Clinical education
- Neonatal guidelines
- Neonatal research
- Family integrated care
- Digital healthcare
- Quality improvement projects
Chair: Manuel Sánchez-Luna
Deputy Chair: Izabela Andrzejewska
The aim of the Neuro Critical Care Section is to bring together researchers, clinicians & educators in the field of paediatric neuro-critical care from across Europe to improve our understanding of the injuries and diseases that affect the brain. We aim to advance diagnostic skills, monitoring techniques and therapeutic management of these conditions within paediatric and neonatal critical care, to improve the neurodevelopmental outcomes of the infants and children we care for.
Current Studies On-going in Neuro Critical Care:
1. Development of international databases on neuromonitoring
2. Neurocritical Care Service in Europe surveys
3. Guidelines on neuromonitoring
Chair: Karl Florian Schettler
Deputy Chair: Shruti Agrawal
The aim of the Nursing Science section is to provide a European forum for clinical nurses, researchers and Nurse Scientists to generate evidence in order to advance practice in the care for critically ill children and neonates. We aim to create a climate to nurture the collaboration, development, delivery and implementation of nursing research into paediatric critical care across Europe that has a demonstrable impact on the experience, outcomes and lives of children and their families.
We would like to challenge all members to bring new projects and ideas to your diverse work environments, enriching the knowledge of all of us. Here you can find possibilities of collaboration and/or some expertise from other elements of the section. Another important initiative is the virtual journal club; this two-monthly event is a great opportunity for nursing members to be part of a shared discussion of ideas of updated articles from various subjects. All members are invited, and the aim is to open a healthy and diverse sharing of knowledge, points of view and thoughts about different topics of study, within the nursing science. The main objective of this initiative is the sharing of different themes and current studies carried out/led by nurses. It is intended, in addition to the acquisition of new knowledge, and active sharing of the different actors on the topics discussed, aiming to enrich and add different perspectives and knowledge arising from different realities and experiences.
Chair: Chiara Tosin
Deputy Chair: Rui Bacelos Silva
Here is the joined report for 2023 from the two ESPNIC Nursing Sections
The aim of the Paediatric and Neonatal nursing section is to bring clinical PICU and NICU nurses from across Europe together. This is a forum for members to share experiences in daily practices, discuss clinical uncertainties, review education about PICU and NICU and discuss the impact of research on daily practice. Education is a really important part of our section and we are committed to developing and raising minimal educational standards for PICU and NICU nurses, to improve the quality of care for critically ill children and neonates across Europe. There is some fantastic research taking place by nursing and allied health professionals and we work closely with the Nursing Science section to help implement research results and evidence into daily practice. This helps ensure that our members have access to the best evidence surrounding PICU and NICU care and our patients and families receive the best care possible.
Chair: Julie Menzies
Deputy Chair: Katee Baptiste
Here is the joined report for 2023 from the two ESPNIC Nursing Sections
Pharmacology is an essential part to be developed in PICU. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics of drugs adopted in the paediatric population require knowledge and accuracy particularly if patients are in critical condition.
The aim of the Pharmacology Section is to enhance the level of evidence-based pharmacotherapy in critically ill newborns and children, promoting education in the area of pharmacotherapy and providing the scientific community with a forum for discussions around innovative trial designs appropriate for the PICU environment. Our section gives the members the possibility to actively participate in projects giving inputs and ideas to share with the group. Furthermore, the Pharmacology Section aims to create an intense collaboration between ESPNIC sections, improving the use of drugs in every PICU setting. Lastly, a further project of our Section is to increase its potential with the development of new collaboration networks (Conect4Children, European Association of Hospital Pharmacists..).
Current research activities:
1. Educational event: How Pharmacology could & should help in PICU (basic course in the 2022-advanced course in 2023)
2. Survey on “pharmacologic culture” in PICU
3. Collaboration with European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (participation in the Special Interest Group for the Investigation of Medication Errors in Intensive Care Units)
Chair: Sylvia George
Deputy Chair: Saskia de Wildt
The aim of the Quality improvement, patient safety, and long term outcomes section is to improve individual care during and after PICU admission and provide a basis for outcome research, intervention studies and follow-up after trials performed in the PICU.
Current activities:
- Developing an education group to maximise knowledge exchange in relation to Quality improvement, Patient safety and Long term outcomes
- ESPNIC Paediatric Early Warning System European Point Prevalence Study
- PALISI Post-PICU Outcomes Group
Chair: Joseph Manning
Deputy Chair: Erwin Ista
The aim of the Respiratory Failure section is to improve the acute and long-term outcome of the critically ill child by promoting, encouraging and performing education and scientific research related to all aspects of acute respiratory failure in children, including pathophysiology, diagnostics, and treatment.
Current research activities:
- VESPER study
- Participating in PEDIAPART study organized by the French network
- Participating in PARDIE study organized by PALICC network
- Dr. Martin Kneyber is leading a study about HFOV. PROSpect — PRone and OScillation Pediatric Clinical Trial
Past:
- Recommendations for mechanical ventilation of critically ill children from the Paediatric Mechanical Ventilation Consensus Conference (PEMVECC) on behalf of the section Respiratory Failure of the European Society for Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care
- PEDNIVES. Survey about NIV use in Europe
- ARDS Berlin´s definition in Paediatrics
Chair: David Tingay
Interim Deputy Chair: Nilufer Yalindag-Ozturk
The aim of the Resuscitation Section is to collate, promote and disseminate best practices in the identification of the deteriorating child and management of the child and infant in cardiorespiratory arrest to optimise outcomes. This will include a focus on education and training of providers in quality improvement CPR programmes.
Chair: Jimena del Castillo
Deputy Chair: Marta Sardà Sánchez
The aim of the ESPNIC Transport Section is to improve the clinical care of the critically ill newborn and child requiring inter-hospital transport and to improve the experience of their parents and families.
Current research activities:
Survey of current provision of transport for critically ill newborns and children in Europe: The Transport Section has developed and conducted a survey of European transport professionals to better understand the current status of transport, such as activity, team composition, patient groups transported and specialist interventions provided. Having this baseline information will allow us to target areas for improvement in the future.
Chair: Ulrich Terheggen
Deputy Chair: Dora Wood