This introductory guide to the critical care environment describes the ICU and the caregivers who staff it; the patients and how they are admitted, monitored, and treated; and some of the common life-support equipment. It includes a strategy for presenting your patient to your team and prepares you for the ethical issues that might confront you in the ICU. The guide also describes some of the career paths that culminate in leadership positions in critical care medicine. 

危重病护理环境指南介绍重症监护室及室内护理人员，病人与病人入院、监护和治疗方式，及一些常用的生命支持设备等内容。指南还包括如何向ICU小组介绍病人和如何在心理上作好应对ICU可能遇到的职业道德问题的准备。指南还对危重病护理医学中领导职位职业提升途径进行了描述。

ICU TYPES     ICU种类

The hospital you are in today is different from the hospital your attending physician claimed as his or her environment. Lengths of stay are down, patient acuity is rising, and critical care units are proliferating. Although the health care system is changing, hospitals will always need an area to care for their sickest patients--a critical care center. The need for these units is growing as patients at all extremes of life—the most premature infants, adults with cardiovascular disease, the severely injured—are growing, both in absolute numbers and in proportion to the general population. Citizens of developed nations around the world are living--and staying active--into the ninth and tenth decades of life. When they become ill, they often require aggressive intervention to stabilize their delicate physiologic balance so they can heal.

你今天所在的医院与你主治医生以前所说的那种环境已大不相同。病人住院时间缩短、病人要求提高、危重护理病房不断增多。虽然健康护理系统在不断变化，但医院将始终需要有一个护理最严重的病人的区域—— 一个危重病护理中心。由于处于生命极端状态的病人的增多，如早产儿、成人心血管疾病患者和重伤病人等，无论是按绝对数字还是按总人口比率计算，对这些病房的需求都在增长。发达国家的人口正在迈向90岁、100岁。这些人生病时常常需要采取入侵性措施，稳定其脆弱的生理平衡，使他们得以治愈。