Handbook

What would you do when you are faced with a critically unwell patient?  What are the steps you need to take to provide the initial assessment and management of a critically unwell patient?  How do you keep a patient alive until help arrives?

Welcome to the discipline of Critical Care. We are a composite discipline focused on how best to assess and manage acutely unwell patients with time critical conditions. Critical Care includes three specialties, Emergency Medicine, Intensive Care and Anaesthesia. 

All three disciplines share the care of the acutely unwell patient who has severe pathophysiology, potenitally involving multiple organs, with diagnoses that may not be evident on arrival. Therefore, this is the place where you would apply your foundational knowledge. Decision-making, communication, and teamwork are key capabilities that require practice while you spend time with us. You will also have ample opportunities to observe and perform procedures. 

Our aim is for you to be workplace ready. We will guide you through this discipline in an 8 week workplace-based course providing teaching and learning focused on a structured approach to the initial assessment and management of undifferentiated patients.  The medical expertise and skills you acquire through this discipline are transferable to other areas of medical practice as we see the full spectrum of diseases in our patients.