Patient & Family Resources: Critical Care Glossary

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A
Advance directive
Instructions to family, friends, physicians and others which describe a person's preferences for medical treatment, should they become incapacitated. Advance directives include living wills, durable power of attorney (for health care) and the assignment of surrogate decision-makers to make decisions on the patient's behalf.

Attending physician
The primary physician who is ultimately responsible for the decisions made about the care of the patient.
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C
Critical care
The specialized medical and nursing care provided to patients facing an immediate life-threatening illness or injury.

Critical care continuum
The series of events that begins when the critically ill or injured patient first receives treatment, is transported and stabilized, is hospitalized and recovers from their illness or injury.

Critical Care Pharmacologist
Doctors of medicine or pharmacology who work with other members of the critical care team to prescribe and monitor the drugs needed by the patient.

Critical care unit (CCU)
A location in the hospital where critical care is provided. Frequently referred to as the intensive care unit (ICU). Critical care units include the medical intensive care unit (MICU), the surgical intensive care unit (SICU), the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), coronary care unit (CCU) and the burn unit.

Critical care team
The multiprofessional team of health care professionals who care for critically ill and injured patients. The critical care team includes the critical care intensivist, critical care nurse, respiratory therapist and pharmacologist. Other allied health therapists and technicians, social workers and clergy may also participate as members of the critical care team.
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D
Do-Not Resuscitate (DNR) Order
An order which, when written on a patient's chart, instructs physicians and nurses to not attempt to re-start the patient's failed heartbeat or respiration.

Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care
The legal document which gives another person -a surrogate decision-maker - the authority to make health care decisions on behalf of a patient when the patient is unable to do so for themselves.
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F
Four primary medical specialties in critical care
Anesthesia, internal medicine, pediatrics and surgery.
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I
ICU
Intensive care unit - synonymous with the critical care unit.Informed consent
The process that occurs when patients are informed about the alternatives for medical treatment that are available to them and are asked to decide which, if any, of the treatments they would like to receive.

Intensivist
A critical care physician whose medical practice is focused entirely on the care of critically ill and injured patients.
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L
Life support
Treatment that includes mechanical ventilation, administration of nutrition and hydration, support of the heart and other interventions to prolong a patient's life.

Living will
A document that requests no life-support treatment be provided to a patient. It is the patient's responsibility to notify family and physician of the existence of a living will.
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M
Multiprofessional
The coordinated efforts of several disciplines to achieve a common goal.
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R
Respirator/ventilator
A machine that is attached to an endotracheal tube to deliver oxygen to a patient's lungs to assist with the breathing process.

Respiratory therapist
A health care practitioner who is specially educated and experienced in caring for patients who have breathing problems requiring respirators or ventilators to help them breathe.
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S
SCCM
The Society of Critical Care Medicine, the leading multiprofessional membership organization of critical care practitioners, with nearly 9,000 members worldwide. SCCM is dedicated to advancing multiprofessional critical care through excellence in patient care, education, research and advocacy.

Sepsis/Septic Shock
Overwhelming infection that causes heart, blood vessel and cell dysfunction.
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T
Triage
The medical assessment of the urgency of a patient's illness or injury that determines their priority for treatment.

Tube feeding
The process whereby patients are provided with nourishment and hydration by tubes placed in the nose, vein or stomach.  
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