ICU illustrated by Susan Buice

The Alfred Hospital’s ICU department has put out a new site called Intensive.

ICN Network has critical care cases. You need to set up log-in details for the site, but its quick, easy and free.

One could easily spend hours working their way through Jeremy Jaramillo’s blog, it covers key topics of critical care such as Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Fluid Management, Sepsis, Ventilation and Perfusion. This is a wonderful resource for students to back up what we see in intensive care wards.

CrashingPatient.com goes through severe sepsis very well too.

InjectableOrange.com‘s Jesse Spurr gives a fantastic post to help you get your head around fluids, with links to other great teachers.

Since acid-base analysis occurs so often in the ICU, you’ll need to give it some thought. This area is traditionally difficult to teach. Scott Weingart has produced a 4 part podcast series on acid-base (with accompanying slides) because he thinks our medical education fails us in this area. Check out the first one here, the second one here, the third here and the fourth here.

To get your head around mechanical ventilation, try Dr John-Emile Kenny’s lectures from heart-lung.org. He uses animated schematics to explain the mechanics of ventilation.