1. Patients are admitted to critical care units for ______.

1. care at end of life
2. specialist monitoring and treatments
3. monitoring of condition

2. A range of healthcare professionals work within critical care; these include ______.

1. nurse specialists
2. infection control team
3. advanced nurse practitioners

3. Burnout can occur when ______.

1. nurses work long hours
2. daily caring for sick patients and their families
3. limited resources are available

4. There are certain criteria required for patients to be admitted appropriately to critical care; this would include ______.

1. increasing requirements for organ support
2. life-limiting conditions
3. potential reversible clinical condition

5. Patient safety is a fundamental aspect of nursing care; this involves ______.

1. understanding ways of effective teamworking
2. awareness of budget and limited resources
3. appreciation that all patients cannot be cared for within critical care and therefore, until clinical condition necessitates, patients should remain within general wards

6. As a healthcare professional working within critical care, it is important to ______.

1. have effective verbal and non-verbal communications skills
2. appreciate that providing technical skills is more important than providing ‘softer’ skills
3. understand all patients generally have the same needs within critical care

7. Within the critical care environment, it is important to provide psychological support.
Therefore, it is vital to ______.

1. care for patients holistically using a person-centred approach
2. appreciate that is although it may not be good for patients the area must always be bright and well-lit
3. accept that critical care is a noisy environment and unfortunately patients may not have a restful experience

8. Post-intensive care syndrome is a recognised phenomenon; this can be reduced by ______.

1. treating underlying factors
2. discontinuing sedative drugs regardless of benefit to patient
3. support and talk to the patient continually

9. Early warning scoring systems are routinely used. Nurses need to ______.

1. assess and respond to patient changes appropriately
2. have an awareness of effective communication systems
3. ensure that clinical deterioration is certain before alerting team

10. To ensure smooth patient transfer from critical care, nurses should ______.

1. advise patient that it may take some time before they return to pre-illness quality of life, if at all
2. if pushed for time, ask the ward staff to contact patient’s relatives to advise of patient transfer
3. arrange to discuss the challenges and address the anxieties that the patient and their family may have pre-transfer