Accreditation

What intensive care involves

Patients on an ICU will be looked after closely by a team of ICU staff and there is usually one nurse for every 1 or 2 patients.   Patients will be connected to equipment by a number of tubes, wires and cables which are used to monitor their health and support their bodily functions until they recover.  Equipment that may be used on an ICU includes:

• A ventilator – a machine that helps with breathing; a tube is placed in the mouth, nose or through a small cut in the throat (tracheostomy).
• Monitoring equipment – used to measure important bodily functions, such as heart rate, blood pressure and the level of oxygen in the blood.
• IV lines and pumps – tubes inserted into a vein (intravenously) to provide fluids, nutrition and medication
  feeding tubes – tubes placed in the nose, through a small cut made in the tummy or into a vein if a person is unable to eat normally.
• Drains and catheters – drains are thin tubesused to remove any build-up of blood or fluid from the body; catheters are thin tubes inserted into the bladder to drain urine.
• Patients in ICU will often be on painkilling medicine and medicine that makes them drowsy (sedatives).