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Educational Goals and Objectives
Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR
INTERNAL MEDICINE
Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
Principle Objectives
To improve decision making, depth of knowledge and technical skills. By rotating through ICU medical residents shall develop a better understanding and capability of managing critically ill patients under stressful conditions.
CanMEDS 2000 ROLE/SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Medical Expert/Clinical Decision Maker
During ICU rotations, residents in the core internal medicine program will:
1) Develop the capacity to make sound decisions about the care of critically ill patients and
develop the ability to recognize potentially dangerous and manifestly life threatening conditions.
2) Develop an understanding of the prevention, diagnosis, incidence, etiology, pathophysiology, signs, symptoms, therapies, prognosis and complications of patients with:
- Cardiac arrest/arrhythmias/cardiogenic shock/pulmonary edema/myocardial infarction/severe hypertension i.e., cardiac crises
- Shock
- Respiratory failure
- Multi system organ failure syndrome
- Coma/status epilepticus/acute neuromuscular diseases and brainstem death
- Sepsis
- Acid-base disorders, fluid and electrolyte disorders, renal preservation and support
- Acute abdomen, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hollow viscus dysfunction and hepatobiliary disease.
- Vascular crises
- Endocrine disturbances related to water and/or glucose metabolism; adrenal, thyroid, parathyroid and pituitary dysfuntion.
- Coagulation disturbances and blood replacement therapy
- Nutrition: enteral and parenteral
- Drugs: general pharmacology of commonly used drugs in the critically ill.
- Hypothermia and hyperthermia syndromes
- Trauma/Burns
- Perioperative high risk conditions
- Pain, anxiety and sleep
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Educational Goals and Objectives
Intensive Care Unit (ICU)
- Intoxications
3) To develop expertise in the following technical procedures:
- Establishment and maintenance of the airway
- Arterial and venous cannulation and catherterization
- Thoracentesis/Tube thoracostomy
- Lumbar puncture
- Peritoneal tap
- Swan Ganz catheter/physiologic monitoring techniques
- Foley catheter/nasogastric/silastic feeding tube insertion
4) To develop an attitude of cooperative professional interaction between critical care and the primary specialties.
Communicator
1) To improve history taking from patients/families as well as physical examinations in patients who are critically ill.
2) To document findings and synthesize the problem and formulate management plans in a clear coherent way.
3) To learn how to and appreciate the importance of good communication skills with critically ill patients and especially their families.
Collaborator
1) To learn how to provide an intensive care consultation service to a variety of subspecialties including surgery, medicine etc.
2) To learn the importance of the multidisciplinary approach in critical care medicine to learn to coordinate and integrate such multifaceted care in the critically ill patient.
Manager
1) To obtain an in-depth experience in acute critical care by being responsible for the management of patients in the intensive care unit.
2) To gain supervisory experience by reviewing patients with junior residents with respect to their diagnostic assessments and management plans.
Health advocate
1) To acquire a humane and compassionate approach to the patient and family interaction in the critical care setting.
2) To become familiar with ethical matters relating to life and death in the critically ill patient including; the ethical, economic and legal aspects of organ donation for transplantation.
Scholar
1) Contribute to teaching of more junior residents as it relates to the case at hand as well as
other major medical concepts
2) Use the patient encounter as a stimulus to further reading and review of current literature.
Professional
1) Demonstrate appropriate professional behaviors
2) Provide effective, quality care with honesty, integrity and compassion