CRITICAL CARE NURSING

Critical Care Nursing

Abstract

In this study we try to explore the concept of critical care nursing in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on critical care nursing and its relation with its development and various other aspects. The research also analyzes many aspects of critical care nursing and tries to gauge its development in near future.

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Critical Care Nursing2

Development of Critical Care Nursing2

Why Specialization in Critical Care Became Important3

Education and Training of Critical Care Nursing3

Level of Education for Critical Care Nurses3

Critical Care Nurse Certification4

Role of Critical-Care Nurses5

Role of an advocate5

Role of an educator5

Role of a coordinator6

Role of a monitor6

Critical care nursing as an act of duty6

Critical care nursing as an act of courage6

Financial Benefits for Critical-Care Nurses7

CRNA7

Nurse Practitioner (NP)7

Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS)7

Conclusion8

Critical Care Nursing

Introduction

The critically ill patient care has been one area of medicine that has developed more rapidly in recent decades. Fortunately, the growth was conducted in a harmonious way, keeping the balance between technological advancement and deepening of the pathophysiology and pathogenesis. Thus, intensive care, which emerged to respond efficiently to emergency care, have been transformed into a specialized field within medicine and have a body of theory well defined and accepted standards for their practices.

In these services the nursing staff plays an important role. With the development of these specialized fields it was necessary to develop a specialized staff to run these specialized fields in an effective and efficient way. Whenever an individual suffer from any sort of illness he or she relies on health service providers. Various members of the health care setting play their part in improving mental and physical well being of an individual. One of the most significant components of health care service providers are nurses.

“Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon”. These are the words of Dag Hammarskjold (the ex-President of USA) truly expressing the importance of the role of a nurse. Nurses play their integral role in facilitating a patient effectively and efficiently.

This paper talks about development of specialized critical care nursing and its various aspects such as roles, training and education of critical care nursing.

Critical Care Nursing

When patients are admitted in critical units with critical illness it is the responsibility of critical care nurse to provide care for these patients. So, in other words it can be said that nurses who provide care to patients in critical care are called critical-care nurses. Here, by critical patient mean patients who have suffered from any life-threatening illness. Patients with critical conditions require complete and focused care from a nurse and critical-care nurses provide this care (Williams and Wilkins, 2007).

Development of Critical Care Nursing

During the period of 1960, group of patients were gathered in the intensive care units on the basis of their illness and the degree of dependence on nurses. This grouping of patients in ICUs is considered as the initial development of critical care as a specialty (ICS, ...