For the pharmacist who is now faced with either opening a critical care unit or joining an existing critical care pharmacy team, it may feel like a mountain to climb to even reach a beginning of understanding of critical care medicine.
Trying to become a critical care pharmacist overnight is not what is needed right now. You may be caring for patients that are critically unwell and what they need is excellent pharmaceutical care. You are a clinical pharmacist and your clinical pharmacist skills are what your patient's and your colleagues need, regardless of the clinical area the patient is in. Critical care medicine will be organised and delivered differently during the COVID 19 pandemic compared to normal times Ward rounds and levels of supervision are likely to change, and practice will have to change and be flexible to meet the needs of our patients.
There will be non critical care trained physicians and nurses caring for these patients and you are on the same team with the same goal to ensure the patient gets the best possible care.
This rapidly prepared paper aims to provide you with a brief understanding of the critical care patient the environment, and some of the tools you will need to provide a basic but solid clinical review.
