Intensive Care Equipment - A simple Guide

We use a lot of medical equipment in intensive care units to help care for our patients.

Here are some simple definitions to help how you understand some of the things we use. 

Created by Marles and Barclay








Guides to help explain ICU to patients















 

Helpful patient resources

ICUsteps is a great support group for intensive care patients.

CriticalCareRecovery (COVID-19 addition ) and ICUunwrapped are helpful and easy-to-follow resources that explains what can happen in intensive care, describes some of the different people involved and explains some of the common language and terminology used.

You can also find out more about procedures and treatments in critical care here.

 

Additional Resources

Patient Profile Form

The patient profile form is a resource that can help us to know more about our patients as individuals and aims to improve a patient’s hospital experience.


How to use the form

It is a simple paper form that the patient or their families/carer voluntarily completes with minimal instructions. With the onset of COVID-19 a nurse liaison completes the form with the help of the next of kin by telephone and near to admission. The form is placed at the patient’s bedside to support the team delivering care.

The form is used in conjunction with Patient Diaries and is designed as a quick overview for all patients. For those patients with specific needs the Health Care Passport is completed.

You can download a patient profile example form here.