An Intensive Care Medicine (ICM) rotation provides fantastic learning opportunities for doctors of all specialties. Understanding your role in this highly specialised field will assist you in gaining maximal benefit from your time in ICM while ensuring the best outcomes for your patients. It can be quite daunting reviewing deteriorating patients and admitting patients to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This article provides tips and advice for doctors new to the specialty, and will be a useful guide for medical, surgical, and emergency medicine trainees before they begin working in the ICU for the first time. We provide a structured, systematic framework which can be used comprehensively to assess ICU patients.
Keywords: assessment; critical care; decision making; education; handover; intensive care unit; multi-disciplinary team.