Intensive Care Units ( ICU )

Intensive care unit (ICU)

أعده : ابتهال الفليو

Is a unit for the critically ill patients 

And we mean by critically ill that this patient Is unstable .. And might be deteriorate at any time ..

ICUs is categorized depending on the cases and the ages of the patients :-

-- Medical Intensive care unit ( MICU ) :- Is for the general medical cases

-- Surgical Intensive care unit (SICU) :- Is for the post-surgical unstable patients

-- Pediatric Intensive care unit (PICU):- Is for the pediatric cases

-- Neonatal Intensive care unit (NICU):- Is for the unstable new born

-- Respiratory Intensive care unit ( RICU ) :- Is for the patients with mainly respiratory disease

-- Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) :- Is for the cardiac cases

In all those units the patients’ needs continuous observation
for any sudden deteriorates..

Nurses in the ICU needs more and developed skills other than
The floor nurses ..

They must be skillful ,knowledgeable and able to manage.

Important things to know before starting in ICU :-

1- Normal range of :- 
- vital signs
- Blood test results and blood components..

2- Arterial blood gases (ABGs)interpretation
3- Basics of Electrocardiograph (ECG)
4- emergency drugs
5- Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)
6-ventilator settings and modes
7- Glasgow Coma Scale ( GCS )

And the most important thing is to review the anatomy and physiology 
Because you'll always need to remember how certain organ is working