These tutorials must not be reproduced without permission or used in any other publication. A service for patients with potentially recoverable diseases who can benefit from more detailed observation and treatment than is generally available in the standard wards and departments. Haemodynamic insufficiency 2. Deteriorating level of consciousness or coma. Fluid and electrolyte imbalance or the anticipation of one of the above.
Observation entails clinical assessment and both non-invasive and invasive monitoring.
Observation also includes data interpretation. The therapies instiruted in ICU should see the patient through to discharge from the hospital. We need to identify the problems and assess what progress has been made to redress them. As an intensive care doctor, your priorities are different. While internal medicine can often be a specialty of deductive reasoning, taking the patient's history, reading clinical signs, making a differential diagnosis ranging from the blatantly obvious to the weird and wonderful, intensive care is about hard cold facts.