Critical Illness” means an illness, sickness or a disease or a corrective measure like Cancer, Kidney failure, Coronary Artery (Bypass) Surgery, Heart Attack (Myocardial Infarction), Heart Valve Surgery, Major Organ Transplantation, Multiple Sclerosis, Primary Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension , Aorta graft surgery etc.
Critical care nurses can further positively impact the care of the chronically critically ill by maintaining familiarity with the symptoms most commonly experienced including pain, lack of energy, thirst, dry mouth, dyspnea, psychological symptoms such as anxiety and worry, and communication difficulty.
Symptom Identification
Symptom assessments often employ checklist self report ratings. Many symptom surveys, such as the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale, were originally designed for use in outpatient cancer care and require retrospective recall about symptom presence and intensity during the preceding days or weeks. Tools have also been applied to other chronic health conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and AIDS. Use of assessment techniques designed for the setting and type of population is crucial, as various symptoms may occur as a result of disease process or treatments experienced during the illness trajectory. The symptom experience of the CCI is likely to be quite different than that of cancer patients in an outpatient or community setting.