What's the ICU of a hospital like?

Question

Can someone give me a brief description. Is it quieter? More lit? More staff? Etc. Etc.

For something i'm writing. I don't think I can actually go on an ICU or i'd go to my husband's job.

Thanks!

Husband works in Orthopedics, not Intensive Care and he's not really familiar with their procedures.

Answer 1

Thankfully I've never been admitted to the ICU, but shortly after my younger son was born, he was in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). It's *very* quiet in there, and each baby has it's own room (they call them "pods") with a hospital bassinet, various monitoring equipment, etc. They keep the rooms very dim and quiet. His condition wasn't as drastic as some newborns' (crack babies, VERY young preemies, etc.) Those babies are in one large room that hold several incubators/bassinets, and there are more nurses to care for those babies since they need more individual care because of their serious conditions. You have to scrub in (like a surgeon, lol) before you enter the NICU. They have to buzz you in and out to avoid you risking stealing one of the babies, or from some lunatic with a weapon getting in. Only two people are allowed per visitor at one time--no exceptions.

Answer 2

In the US: There is nothing that requires any number of physicians per ICU patient. In some ICUs, the primary covers his own patients, in others the specialty service (ie renal) covers with the primary and in others the Intensivist takes over care but lets the primary know what's going on & cosults specialty services but retains ultimate care coordination. In a surgical patient the surgeon may be primary. The docs are not in house 24/7 unless it is a teaching hospital where fellows & residents are in house; the ICU attending usually goes home unless someone is critical. In the ICU I worked in; it was 36 beds; there was 1 ICU attending per 24 hours (went home); 1 fellow, 2 residents and 1 PA oer 24 hours. For the most part, there is 1 ICU intensivist per ICU per 24 hours. Its not like they are at a bedside like a RN constantly.

Answer 3

An ICU is generally small privat cubicle with lots of machines and it is quieter as the people in ICU are usually critically ill. There staff to patient ratio is smaller than on a regular unit. Visitors are limited to how much time they can spend at the bedside in some units and even who can visit might be limited. At the nurses station there are monitors for each room so the nurses can monitor the heartbeat and heart rhythm etc of each patient at all times.

Answer 4

It's an Intensive Care Unit, usually when I had a duty in the hospital, all of the patients that I took care of were in the critical conditions. Example, Cardiac Problems, Vehicular Accidents with several attachments like Endotracheal Tube and so on I hope I can help a bit LoL

Answer 5

The intensive care unit is brighter. They almost never turn the lights off, so patients often don't know whether it is day or night. They nursing staff is supposed to highly trained to work with the patients admitted to the unit. It is quiet and visitors are kept to a bare minimum and only allowed to visit for about five minutes every hour. Go to the place your husband works and look around. Everyone does it.

Answer 6

As a matter of fact I just got out of the hospital and I was in T.I.C.U. and it was really no different than any other room. The nurses and doctors were in my room more often and answered my call button much faster, but other than that my room was the same. I was in because my doctor was unable to get my blood pressure down. But I am home now and doing great!

But I think you may be talking about a different I.C.U. and it is different than the one I was in. And they look very sterile, quite and bright. You can't visit except during certain hours. Everyting just looks so clean and like you can't touch it.

Machines and tubes everywhere. Lots of packages of sterile things all wrapped up.

nfd♥

Answer 7

an icu is a very quiet somewhat tense place, depending on the severity of the problems the patients have and how long they have been in the ICU. If your husband works in an ICU, why not just ask him?

Answer 8

its actully really werid being in a icu ward.. when i visted good friend in a coma it was really kind of scary it was really quiet the nurses ust sorta floated around every so often to check on the patients doing their hourly check ups the lights were dimmed unlike in a normal ward there is sunlight and lights on, there are beeping noises every where from the patients life support machines ect

Answer 9

It's intense! Okay, so I know that didn't help at ALL, but the Jerk in me just couldn't resist. They Care for U there though. Okay, that was the last one, I PROMISE!

I'm so sorry, Sarcasm is just hard to turn off sometimes. You seem to have a sense of humor so I thought it would be okay. Have a good one Bonny

Answer 10

It is more reserved and away from the everything else.