Preface

Critical care nursing is complex, highly skilled, demanding, and very rewarding. It requires knowledge and understanding of the physiology and patho-physiology of all the major organs; the effect of the critical care environment, and critical illness on the individual and their family; the importance of communication and collaboration with colleagues, patient and family; and the ability to intervene with a calm, compassionate, skilled, and knowledgeable manner.

The volume of knowledge and capability required is vast and it is not the intent of this book to cover all of it. Rather we have tried to provide the essence of what could be considered important to the delivery of highly skilled and caring critical care nursing in an easy to access and read format.

The book is intended to be a handy reference guide for nurses who are new to the critical care area, as well as a reminder for those with more experience. This format does not support detailed referencing of an evidence base, but we have referred to ‘Further information’ where we feel particular articles or books are important to the topic.

Critical care is constantly changing and developing, and although we have tried to reflect current best practice, there will always be variations where ‘best’ is not absolute. We have therefore reflected best practice as we know it from our own experience.

Sheila K. Adam

Sue Osborne