Critically Ill
Question: What situation can you think of where a critically ill patient might be ‘looked after’ in recovery?
Click here for the answer.
Question: What situation can you think of where a critically ill patient might be ‘looked after’ in recovery?
Answer: There may be post-operative patients who need
to be cared for in the intensive care unit or high dependency unit but
where a bed is not yet available.
There may also be situations
where a patient who needs to be admitted to the intensive care unit (from
another ward or from the emergency department) can’t be because there are
no beds available. In such situations patients may temporarily be cared
for in recovery.
Question: Whose responsibility is the patient?
Should recovery staff care for the intensive care patients?
Click here for the answer.
Question: What situation can you think of where a critically ill patient might be ‘looked after’ in recovery?
Answer: There may be post-operative patients who need
to be cared for in the intensive care unit or high dependency unit but
where a bed is not yet available.
There may also be situations
where a patient who needs to be admitted to the intensive care unit (from
another ward or from the emergency department) can’t be because there are
no beds available. In such situations patients may temporarily be cared
for in recovery.
Question: Whose responsibility is the patient?
Should recovery staff care for the intensive care patients?
Answer:
The responsibility of these patients belongs to the intensive care consultant and they should be looked after by an intensive care trained nurse on a one-to-one basis.
Handover of such a patient may involve many staff, depending on who will be caring for him or her. For example, you may need to handover to the recovery team, the intensive care unit (ICU) nurse, the ICU doctor and to the person in charge of the ICU.