Read on Twitter
As we think about unconventional spaces for ICU patients, a reflection thread on the staff we need to make this work:
(Thread)
- resource nurses who are the captains of the icu. Identify where patients are coming from, how to staff beds, and where patients are going..
(Thread)
- resource nurses who are the captains of the icu. Identify where patients are coming from, how to staff beds, and where patients are going..
Bedside nurses - the backbone of the icu. They know their patients better than anyone. They hold their hands. Listen to their families. Titrate life saving medications. Keep patients clean. Raise red flags. Tell doctors what to do.
Respiratory therapists - masters of the ventilator. Macgyver pilot bulbs and troubleshoot equipment. Get people off life support and breathing on their own
Pharmacists - review medication orders and fix all my mistakes. Speak to families and home pharmacies to ensure continuity of care. Cross check and eliminate drug reactions for patients on 20 medications. Keep me company on bedside rounds
Dieticians - keep our sickest patients well nourished to make sure they have what they need to recover. Remind me of water flushes. Adjust macro and micronutrients specific to each patient and disease process
Ward clerks - read my chicken scratch and enter orders. Fax referrals. Fix portable workstations. Know where any form I ever need is (why is it always an MRI req?)
Patient care aides - the ultrasound is always at the bedside before I realize it’s needed. A chat about the Raptors. A bandaid cause I got a paper cut from the MRI req
Housekeeping - keep patients flowing in the unit when we urgently have to swap someone sick on the ward. Keeping one of the highest risk areas of the hospital clean and safe. Always having the call room ready.
Porters - moving patients to and from the ICU. ER, ward, diagnostic imaging. Managing to move a bed along with 6 infusion pumps. Unimaginable but perfectly executed with skill and grace.
Physiotherapists and occupational therapists and aides - ensuring our patients maintain and recover a degree of mobility and independence. Helping people move and be themselves after weeks on a ventilator
Apologies if I’ve missed a group of professionals and I’m sure I have cause the number of cogs that it takes to make an ICU work is incredible. Docs are a small part of that. Physical beds and ventilators, and even smaller part. All stretched dangerously thin soon in Ontario.
