Intensive Care Medicine (ICM) Jobs
Intensive Care Physicians manage patients who are at high-risk of death or are in a critical condition needing advanced medical care of their major organs or organ systems. They work in emergency and acute care settings in hospitals, including the ICU, HDU, CCU and across other wards. Intensive Care Physicians can diagnose and investigate serious illness, and manage the gravely ill or injured patient, which may involve resuscitation and airway management, advanced life support, providing support to patient’s families, and coordinating end of life care. They may specialise in paediatric ICM, neurosurgical and neurological ICM or cardiothoracic ICT. They uphold safety and ethical procedures and have advanced communication skills to effectively and appropriately interact with patients, families, other team members, and referring clinicians. To train as an Intensive Care Physician, doctors complete foundation and core training (Stage 1 ACCS), followed by postgraduate specialist training in Intensive Care Medicine (ICM) which takes approximately 4 years to complete and leads to a CCT and specialty registration with the GMC. Once at this level, they are senior doctors and their role involves continued professional development, clinical leadership, and contribution to teaching, research, quality improvement and administration.
Registrars (Intensive Care) work in critical care settings such as in the ICU, HCU, CCU and other out-of-hospital critical care environments. They are registered doctors who have completed their medical degree, foundation and core training and can now undertake specialist/or vocational training positions to broaden and refine their scope of practice and gain experience, skills and competency in their chosen area of medicine. Registrars are very important members of the integrated and multi-disciplinary health care team. They have increasing responsibility for patient care, oversee and support junior doctors and staff, participate in professional development activities and continue to receive important guidance, training, and support from senior staff. To pursue a career in this field, Registrars can undertake advanced training in Intensive Care Medicine and its clinical practice. They work under Intensive Care Physicians and develop procedural skills, clinical expertise, and valuable work experience in providing medical care to patients with critical and urgent medical needs, trauma or illness. They develop skills in airway management including bag/valve/mask ventilation, endotracheal intubation and LMA placement. They work across Intensive care, Emergency medicine, Anaesthetics, Paediatric medicine and Palliative care medicine.
Nurses (Critical Care) work with acutely ill patients in Emergency, ICU, ITU, CCU and other critical care and high dependency units in hospitals. They may also work in other locations as part of a rapid response team. They specialise in providing nursing care to a variety of patients – from very old to very young, who have immediate and serious health and medical needs from injury, acute illness or chronic/complex illness. They may be responsible for triage and evaluation, following patient management plans and recording changes, observing and monitoring a patient’s condition and vital signs, assisting medical staff with ICU therapies - such as ventilation, airway management, resuscitation, haemodynamic monitoring, dialysis, and other advanced life support or rehabilitation procedures - and supporting the patient and their family during recovery or palliative care. To pursue a career in this field Nurses need to be registered with the NMC, and develop skills and experience in Neuro, Cardiac or General ITU/HDU/ICU.