Monitoring the Critically Ill Patient

Monitoring the critically ill patient is a practical guide to monitoring acutely ill patients on the general ward. Critically ill patients are increasingly cared for outside intensive care units and all nurses need to be able to accurately monitor critically ill patients in their care. Monitoring the critically ill patient assumes no prior knowledge and equips students and newly qualified staff with the clinical skills and knowledge they need in order to confidently monitor patients at risk, identify key priorities, and provide prompt and effective care. It was developed in response to NHS policies relating to critical care and adopts a system-by-system approach, exploring respiratory function, cardiovascular function, neurological function, renal function, gastrointestinal function, hepatic function, endocrine function, nutritional status, and temperature in turn. This revised and updated second edition includes an additional chapter on outreach, medical emergency teams and early warning scoring systems. A final chapter explores monitoring during transport.