44. . . . (NURSING IN THE INTENSIVE CARE UNIT. RESUSCITATION. ANESTHESIA)
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| intensive care -- life-threatening - close monitoring - bodily functions - severely ill patients - hospital ward - resuscitation - to return to consciousness - to be accomplished by - overall health - | artificial respiration - cardiac arrest - external cardiac massage - brain damage - lack of oxygen - to decrease sensitivity to pain - general anesthesia - local anesthesia - to induce drowsiness |
An Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is a special department of a hospital that provides intensive-care medicine.
Intensive Care Units cater to patients with the most serious injuries and illnesses, most of which are life-threatening and need constant, close monitoring and support from equipment and medication in order to maintain normal bodily functions.
ICU Nurse Duties
When patients are critically injured or ill and their conditions are unstable, they are usually admitted to a special hospital ward called the "intensive care unit", or ICU, where nurses are trained to respond to life-threatening problems. These nurses are capable of providing optimal care to critically ill patients and their families. Their duties vary depending on the situation.
Resuscitation is the act of reviving a person and returning them to consciousness; "although he was apparently drowned, resuscitation was accomplished by artificial respiration" 
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Nurses have a crucial role to play in determining whether victims of cardiac arrest survive. Nurses are generally the first responders to a cardiac arrest and initiate basic life support while waiting for the advanced cardiac life support team to arrive.
Cardiac resuscitation is an emergency procedure consisting of external cardiac massage and artificial respiration; the first treatment for a person who has collapsed and has no pulse and has stopped breathing; attempts to restore circulation of the blood and prevent death or brain damage due to lack of oxygen
Anesthesia is the term given to the loss of feeling or sensation. In medical terms, it is the method of decreasing sensitivity to pain in a patient so that a medical procedure may be performed. Anesthesia may be accomplished without the loss of consciousness, or with partial or total loss of consciousness.
There are two kinds of anesthesia: general anesthesia, which affects the entire body and causes a loss of consciousness, and local anesthesia, in which only the area being operated on is affected. With local anesthesia, the patient may be conscious during the course of the operation or given a sedative, a drug that induces drowsiness or sleep.
