Critical Care Outreach

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.