The Section of Critical Care has a total of 12 faculty members with backgrounds in Anesthesiology, Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Neurology, plus 6 advanced practitioners (Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants). There is also an entirely separate section of Pediatric Critical Care (PICU).
These ICUs use a co-management approach, where the Critical Care team works very closely with the primary care service to provide comprehensive care to the patients. The rotations in our Intensive Care Units are dedicated to providing residents with hands-on clinical experience in a wide variety of settings, supplemented by daily didactic sessions by academic faculty and fellows committed to teaching. Resident education is a priority throughout the rotation. The overall goal of the critical care rotation is to enable each resident to acquire the knowledge, skills and experience to successfully provide care for the critically ill patients.
The CT-ICU rotation in particular is of great relevance to the anesthesia residents. The Cardiothoracic ICU rotation is scheduled after the Cardiothoracic OR rotation. In the OR, they manage patients during surgeries to include CABG, Valvular Surgery, Cardiac Transplant, Congenital Heart Surgery, LVAD and Tandem Heart Placement. During the ICU rotation, the anesthesia resident is actively involved in the post operative management of these patients once they are transferred to the ICU. This includes post operative hemodynamic issues, use of vasopressors, inotropes and ventilator management and several other issues. This rotation thus provides longitudinal exposure to a cardiac surgery patient and provides an invaluable experience toward improving clinical management skills in the OR and PACU. Our unit also has patients on ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) and the resident is involved in the management of those patients as well.
The critical care group has an active basic and clinical research program. For interested residents, the resources of group are available to assist in projects.