Critical Care Outreach - Softcover

Following the publication of the department of health document - Comprehensive Critical Care (2000), the majority of hospitals in England have set up Critical Care Outreach Teams. The Government provided a significant sum of money for hospitals to set up outreach services. There are now calls for an evaluation of their impact. The book is set out in five key sections. Each section features chapters that address the conceptual and real life issues. In each section there is a chapter, set out as a case study example, demonstrating how innovative practices and service developments are going on around critical care outreach. The book will draw upon the knowledge, experience and clinical expertise of senior critical care nurses and doctors from a critical care network. The book will have a definite practical application and will provide tips to enhance practice. Chapters contain useful 'how to' guides, prompts for critical thinking and case studies. Very little has previously been published on this topic

Following the publication of the Department of Health document – Comprehensive Critical Care (2000), many hospitals in England have established critical care outreach teams. This approach to the management of patients who are cared for outside the walls of critical care units is one that is also used beyond the UK with the development of ‘Medical emergency teams’ in Australia.

Critical Care Outreach gives a comprehensive overview of this new area of critical care practice in five sections covering: the evolution of outreach; clinical practice; continuity of care; managing and supporting outreach practitioners and developing and evaluating outreach. Each section has chapters covering important topics that include:

• The origins of outreach

• Designing an outreach service

• Specific clinical problems

• Sharing critical care skills

• Role expansion for critical care outreach nurses

• Critical care follow-up

• The learning needs of critical care outreach practitioners

• A toolkit for managing changing in practice

The book is written by expert critical care nurses and doctors who have included case studies that demonstrate innovations in practice and useful examples of how the challenges faced in outreach can be managed.

This easy to use book provides prompts for critical thinking and tips to enhance and develop individual practice and clinical service effectiveness. Critical care nurses and doctors, nursing students, medical and physiotherapy students and post registration nurses would find this practical book of great value.