The surgical intensive care unit is an environment where the team approach is used to care for critically ill and injured patients. Our Intensive Care Unit is a twenty-four bed, mixed medical / surgical ICU. It is considered an ‘open ICU’. This means the Surgical Critical Care team functions as a consulting service for all surgical patients in the Intensive Care Unit. 

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Rounds

During weekdays (except Thursday), the ICU team and Trauma Team round at 8:15. Thursdays: Grand Rounds, Teaching conferences and Pre-op conference occur. These mornings, rounds are sometimes scheduled at an alternate time than 8:15. The on-call attending on Wednesday night is typically the attending covering Thursday morning. The covering chief resident will be responsible for arranging time of rounds on Thursdays. 

 

Expectations 

In addition to reporting patient data, residents are expected to synthesize a treatment plan that is evidence-based for each of the patient's active problems. The recommended presentation format will aid in organizing coherently the reporting of patient data in a system-based fashion.

 

​In addition to presenting on morning rounds, you will be the first "go to" person for issues in the ICU. Your role will be to keep the primary team apprised of new issues and to help manage patients while the primary team is in clinic or the operating room. You are not expected to manage patients on your own. ICU patients are complex and require a team approach to management. All clinical decisions should be ones that the chief resident and / or attending agree with. Your ICU rotation will be what you make it… the ICU is a place where you can further your understanding of disease pathophysiology. At times, this rotation will challenge you both intellectually and emotionally. We challenge you to take full opportunity of what this experience has to offer. Know that even when things feel hard, there are always Chief residents and Attendings who have your back. Keep lines of communication open and never, ever hesitate to ask for help.