Society of Critical Care Medicine

I'm taking a course from the Society of Critical Care Medicine. I did not take an elective in the ICU during medical school, so my first TRUE experience will be on the PICU in July. This course was actually pretty helpful in reviewing the basics of ICU. Some tips I learned:

Always start with the ABCs.

Tachypnea is an omnious sign of sickness. Evaluate thoroughly

When a nurse calls you on call and tells you about a patient with dyspnea, get up, standup.

Rocuronium (a non-depolarizing agent) has an antidote - Sugammadex! I don't thinks it's been approved by the FDA yet.

Intubate starting from pt's right mouth and sweep the tongue. Have someone give you Sellick and the fish hook. Then use BURP myself and have another person hold it when i visualize cords.

Use the bougie as a tube exchanger.

Winter's formula: 1.5*HCO3 + 8 +/- 2

For every 10mmHg change in PCO2, there is a 0.8 change in pH.

Propofol can cause falsely elevated Pulse oximetry saturations.

After finishing up the Day 1 of the course, I went and hung out with surgical interns. Yes, they are normal people too. Good times.

p.s. Who knows how to calculate the delta-delta? Care to share?