Critical Care Nurses
"I was sitting in the back when I suddenly saw a commotion at the front of the plane, and moments later I heard an announcement over the speaker asking urgently for anyone working in the medical field. I rushed over there and found a man lying on the floor, unconscious. When I checked him, I discovered his pulse and breathing had both stopped, so I immediately performed first aid and CPR. Within minutes, the man was brought back to life after nearly losing it, and the plane's captain returned to the airport it had departed from so the man could be taken to a hospital, where they discovered he'd had a stroke — and if I hadn't intervened, he wouldn't be alive today." That's how Indian nurse Ansy Philip described the tense moments she lived through in 2015 while she and several family members were on a flight from her home country to Qatar. Ansy Philip works in the intensive care unit at a heart hospital run by Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar, so every day at work she encounters hundreds of cases like this — heart attacks, strokes, accident victims, and more — and she certainly knows how to handle such emergencies well. Today's topic is a bit different from most of the medical professions we usually write about, since the nature of critical care nurses' work demands broad experience and a wide range of skills. These nurses are responsible for caring for patients with serious illnesses and directly life-threatening injuries. Such emergency cases are often hooked up to precise medical devices that measure heart rate, breathing and oxygen levels, blood pressure, temperature, and more. The critical care nurse is responsible for monitoring these devices closely and recording the data and readings they display, and is tasked with continuously observing and tracking the health condition of patients suffering from life-threatening illnesses or injuries — since they may suddenly experience a sudden disruption in the function of an organ or system at any moment, and at that point, the critical care nurse must intervene immediately to save the patient or alert the specialist doctor.
Meet the Writer: Waleed Abo Omiraa
What You'll Actually Do
The core tasks and responsibilities that fill a typical day.
- Identify patients' age-specific needs and alter care plans as necessary to meet those needs.
- Provide post-mortem care.
- Evaluate patients' vital signs or laboratory data to determine emergency intervention needs.
- Perform approved therapeutic or diagnostic procedures, based upon patients' clinical status.
- Administer blood and blood products, monitoring patients for signs and symptoms related to transfusion reactions.
- Administer medications intravenously, by injection, orally, through gastric tubes, or by other methods.
- Advocate for patients' and families' needs, or provide emotional support for patients and their families.
- Set up and monitor medical equipment and devices such as cardiac monitors, mechanical ventilators and alarms, oxygen delivery devices, transducers, or pressure lines.
- Monitor patients' fluid intake and output to detect emerging problems, such as fluid and electrolyte imbalances.
- Monitor patients for changes in status and indications of conditions such as sepsis or shock and institute appropriate interventions.
- Assess patients' pain levels or sedation requirements.
- Assess patients' psychosocial status and needs, including areas such as sleep patterns, anxiety, grief, anger, and support systems.
- Collaborate with other health care professionals to develop and revise treatment plans, based on identified needs and assessment data.
- Collect specimens for laboratory tests.
- Compile and analyze data obtained from monitoring or diagnostic tests.
- Conduct pulmonary assessments to identify abnormal respiratory patterns or breathing sounds that indicate problems.
- Document patients' medical histories and assessment findings.
- Document patients' treatment plans, interventions, outcomes, or plan revisions.
- Identify patients at risk of complications due to nutritional status.
- Prioritize nursing care for assigned critically ill patients, based on assessment data or identified needs.
- Assist physicians with procedures such as bronchoscopy, endoscopy, endotracheal intubation, or elective cardioversion.
- Ensure that equipment or devices are properly stored after use.
- Identify malfunctioning equipment or devices.
- Assess family adaptation levels and coping skills to determine whether intervention is needed.
- Coordinate patient care conferences.
- Participate in professional organizations and continuing education to improve practice knowledge and skills.
- Participate in the development, review, or evaluation of nursing practice protocols.
- Plan, provide, or evaluate educational programs for nursing staff, interdisciplinary health care team members, or community members.
- Supervise and monitor unit nursing staff.