FORGED Critical Care
FORGED connects the science of critical illness with the decisions you make in practice. Understand the physiology, work through challenging cases, and learn to explain why an approach fits, what could change your thinking, and how to assess the response.
Built for EMTs, paramedics and critical care paramedics, ICU and acute-care nurses, critical care transport nurses, critical care nurse practitioners and NP students. Bring your experience, your questions, and the topics you want to understand better.
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At the bedside, in the field, during rapid response, across ground and flight transport, and in acute-care practice. Nursing and EMS students are welcome, too.
What makes FORGED different
A useful explanation should help you understand both the problem and the choices in front of you. FORGED brings physiology, case-based practice, and open discussion together.
Use visual lessons and plain-language explanations to connect what the body is doing with what you see in practice. Follow the sources when you want to go further.
Explore the lessons The reasoningWork through a fictional case, compare possible explanations, and decide what would change your plan. Explore our preview and the clinical topics in development.
Explore clinical practice The peopleAsk a question, share a struggle, or challenge an idea respectfully. Read along, reply to a discussion, or submit a story for review without a public byline.
Find the communityFor the next stage of your practice
For experienced nurses, practicing critical care NPs, paramedics, and NP students. Build on what you know about assessment, differential diagnosis, treatment choices, and response to care across ICU, emergency, rapid response, acute-care, and transport settings.
Free case preview · Available now
The pressure looks acceptable. The support needed to maintain it is rising. Work through a fully fictional handoff from three perspectives and decide which missing information changes the plan.
Work through the caseSix sections · Lesson roadmap
Shock and hemodynamics. Ventilation and gas exchange. Neuro, sedation, and delirium. Renal and metabolic care. Transport and flight. Acute-care and team reasoning.
See learning goals and 24 planned lessons, with availability clearly marked.
Explore the clinical practice hubStart with the official eligibility and exam guides. FORGED is developing independent prep for adult critical care, with transport and flight tracks planned.
For RNs and APRNs who meet AACN’s eligibility rules. Qualifying adult critical care experience can include bedside, transport, or flight care.
AACN eligibility and exam guideCertified Transport Registered Nurse. Explore BCEN’s credential for ground critical care transport nurses.
BCEN transport certificationCertified Flight Registered Nurse. Explore BCEN’s credential for flight nurses.
BCEN flight certificationOur approach
FORGED connects physiology, clinical evidence, and the decisions clinicians make when someone is critically ill.
Why I started FORGEDTry it before you commit
Explore the free previews and see how FORGED teaches.
Try 16 original questions with explanations and see the planned $150, 30-day program.
Explore the NCLEX preview ↗ Before schoolCompare nursing and paramedic prerequisites, nationwide program examples, and textbook options.
Explore prerequisites ↗ Free practiceTry 20 original starter questions in circulation, calculations, and fictional handoffs.
Open practice ↗A place to listen
Share a struggle, ask an uncomfortable question, or read along. FORGED makes room for respectful disagreement, personal reflection, and occasional opinion pieces clearly labeled as opinion.
Questions and concerns can reveal what a team has missed. A 2024 survey of healthcare workers in one Malaysian hospital linked a discouraging speaking-up climate with withholding concerns. That supports encouraging questions; it does not prove that every controversial debate improves care.
Challenge the idea without attacking the person. Share evidence, acknowledge uncertainty, and keep patients and workplaces unidentifiable. You can request a pen name or no byline for a reviewed story; public replies show your Substack profile name.
Optional one-time reader support helps keep issues free and funds new learning resources.
