The Must-Have Guide for Navigating the ICU The House Officer's Guide to ICU Care is an eminently practical handbook for junior house officers, medical students, PAs, and nurses that offers nuts-and-bolts guidelines for optimal management of medical and surgical patients in the ICU setting. Using clear, straightforward language, the authors methodically guide clinicians through the decision-making process, first by outlining the pathophysiology of abnormalities seen in the ICU and then by explaining the principles underlying today's therapeutic measures and describing how these agents and devices are used to ensure safe patient recovery. While the text focuses on the postoperative cardiothoracic surgery patient, the principles and therapies covered are broadly relevant to all medical and general surgery ICU patients. This third edition has been thoroughly updated to include the newest diagnostic and treatment technologies, procedures, and practices, and covers everything the house officer needs to know to deliver safe, effective, front-line care - especially during those times when senior staff are not there to rely on. Updated references, self-assessment tools, and an Emergency Response Sheet of essential paradigms, drugs, and doses will ensure confident decision-making when it counts the most. For the house officer, this book gives you everything you need to know, and not a word more. Especially useful for: - house officers and medical students embarking on ICU responsibilities - intensive care nurses and nurses in training - physicians' assistants - respiratory therapists