Workforce Planning Across Adult Intensive Care Units

Workforce Planning Across Adult Intensive Care Units

Introduction

The terms intensive care and resuscitation identifies the set of complex diagnostic and therapeutic procedures aimed at the restoration and support of vital functions (cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, metabolic) acutely and severely compromised. At the same time these terms are also used to identify the structures with personnel and equipment suitable for the monitoring and treatment of the patient in imminent danger of death. For the high-tech tools used and for the continued evolution of the knowledge base, and is characterized as the most modern among medical disciplines (Mitchell, 2003).

The polio epidemic of 1952 in the Scandinavian countries poses, with dramatic clarity the problem of producing departments where he was given the opportunity to assist patients with severe respiratory failure from bulbar impairment. This experience led him to recognize the positive pressure ventilation system of choice for the treatment of acute respiratory failure. In subsequent years, we have witnessed a surprising and rapid development of techniques for the support of vital functions, made ??possible by advances in technology that characterizes the modern era.

Discussion

Intensive Care Units

Treatment of the critical phase of pathological conditions affecting the vital functions requires specific diagnostic and therapeutic interventions with the use of resources (in terms of staff, instrumental support, and medications) of high complexity and cost. The set of structures involved in the treatment of these patients configures the centers of resuscitation and intensive care units.

For their optimal functioning and for the better management of the resources you need to meet some basic requirements: ability to bring together multidisciplinary expertise in the critically ill; continuous and immediate availability of diagnostic services, intensive functional link the area with all departments and services hospital who need to interact with it (emergency department, surgery, laboratory, radiology, blood transfusion center). Of course, the hospital, the departments and are placed in different locations in relation to their functional specialization and structural differences have also remarkable. In this sense, one can distinguish the resuscitation multipurpose centers, now present in almost all hospitals and dealing with any critical illness, from you addressed to the specialist care of patients matched for disease or age groups.

We can therefore identify multiple postoperative burns; unit will Coronary heart surgery, neurosurgery, neonatal. These structures, in contrast to the Centers resuscitation polyvalent, are present only in the hospitals of major dimensions to cope with special care needs. In practice, the Polyvalent is a simple and effective way to manage the critically ill centralizing the service and placing in one place, for reasons of economy and efficiency, technology and personnel.

Responsibilities of ICU Workforce

A nurse in the intensive care unit is sometimes called a nurse in intensive care. These are registered nurses (RN) who may have additional training, work experience or education (Stone, et al, 2004). They work mainly in intensive care units (ICU), providing the necessary care for large patients in these units. There may be a lot of hands on work of these nurses, who may also be the ...