Vicki Bacidore is an emergency department nurse practitioner at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, and an assistant professor of nursing at Loyola University Chicago, where she is the DNP/AG-ACNP Program Track Director and the Associate Department Chair for the Health Systems and Adult Health Nursing Department.
Bacidore has decades of experience in emergency nursing and education, with a longtime interest in toxicology and substance abuse disorders. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing/psychology from Elmhurst College, a master’s degree in organizational behavior and health care administration from Benedictine University, and a master’s and doctorate in acute care/emergency from Loyola University Chicago.
As part of her doctoral work, Bacidore implemented the alcohol screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment program in Loyola’s ED.
“I’ve always been interested in substance abuse disorders … I love toxicology and anything to do with taking care of patients that have those types of problems,” Bacidore said. SBIRT provides a screening protocol to identify people who come in for an injury or other urgent need who are also at risk for substance abuse. While still in the ED, at-risk patients can be connected to a social worker for education or resources to take home with them.
“I really thought (SBIRT) could make a difference (when) the patient was at that teachable moment in time,” Bacidore said. It is a protocol that ENA has promoted for a long time, she added, and she used some of ENA’s tools when introducing it in her own ED. Several of Bacidore’s graduate students have undertaken similar projects, developing protocols based on SBIRT to address opioids and substance withdrawal as well.
Bacidore said she was drawn to the “high intensity of the department and the teamwork” she witnessed in the ED during her first hospital job as an 18-year-old, part-time phlebotomist when she was in college.
“I was blown away by the environment,” she said. While pursuing her BSN, she simultaneously enrolled in an EMT program at a community college, which helped her land her first job as a nurse in an emergency department.
She joined ENA early in her career, is a past president of the Illinois ENA State Council and currently serves on several Illinois committees, including membership, education, evidence-based practice and spring symposium, and she recently began peer-reviewing for ENA’s Journal of Emergency Nursing. Bacidore has published in textbooks and peer-reviewed publications including the JEN and Advanced Emergency Nursing Journal. She also serves on the Illinois Poison Center’s advisory council.
“I’ve loved my time with ENA,” Bacidore said. “I want to stay involved as long as I can.”