Product Description

The intensive care unit (ICU) is an intimidating environment for junior doctors entering it for the first time. This book aims to give them practical guidance on the day-to-day procedures and problems they will encounter. The book should be of interest and relevance to Senior House Officers training in anaesthesia, medicine and surgery and SHOs from all these specialties rotate through the ICU. This is a "white coat pocket" book designed for hour-by-hour consultation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #837033 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 285 pages

Customer Reviews

A simple guide to a complicated specialty
Starting out in intensive care is a daunting prospect for most senior house officers. The style of medicine practised is quite different from other hospital firms and the patients are, on the whole, much sicker. It requires a new set of skills and a new way of thinking. And what to do when strange machines start beeping when it's only you on at night, and the nurses are looking to you for ideas? Help is at hand in the form of this pocketbook. Unlike many handbooks, this really is small enough to fit into the pocket of a set of scrubs without causing you to limp. It is categorised sensibly in a systems-based fashion, making it easier to find information when you're already starting to panic. It has helpful sections on commonly encountered problems, and list of likely causes and remedies of them which mean that if you have to wake your boss at three in the morning, you can have tried to solve the problem yourself first. There is also a very useful section on common practical procedures.

For my money, this book is a far better bet than the Oxford Handbook of Critical Care if you're new to Intensive Care and don't necessarily intend to take it up as a career. This Oxford Handbook is very much more detailed than the pocketbook, but much of this detail is beyond the scope of what you need to know and, as such, extraneous. The pocketbook is also much more accessibly written, while the Oxford Handbook is drier.

While this is nowhere near an exhaustive text on intensive care medicine, it does exactly what it says on the tin and I would recommend it to anyone starting out in I.T.U. It should make those long nights a little more comfortable.

A quick and easy guide to ITU.
As an ITU Nurse this book is a good source of reference. As a lecturer it provides a good outline for any information you need, or that tricky question you get asked by the student at the back!
the layout of the book and it's contents is easy on the eye and information can be found easily.

I'm not an ITU SHO
It gives you the basics - I'm an A and E SHO doing sometime in ITU. It gives you a little bit of an idea and therefore some time to play with while your senior gets there. If anything it can be a little basic for actually treating people but it gives you the floorboards so that you are not totally comfused when you consultant starts laying the carpet and furnishing the place. I would say it is probably excellent for ICU nurses and doctors from other specialties but a little simple for career anaesthetics or icu doctors