Things You Need To Know About Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)

It is an overwhelming and challenging situation for parents to see their children in the hospital. What more when they are in the pediatric intensive care unit or PICU. Knowing the equipment in the PICU and people who will take care of your child may help you feel better ready to help them. Keep reading to learn more about the pediatric intensive care unit, who needs this type of medical care, and the people qualified to be part of this care treatment.

What is Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)?

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is a multidisciplinary team that provides critically ill children with the highest level of medical care. It varies from other hospital departments, similar to the main medical floors. In fact, children in pediatric intensive care units get comprehensive nursing care and close monitoring of breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure.

This hospital section also allows medical staff to give therapies that may not be accessible in other hospital areas. These can incorporate ventilators and medications that can only be given under close medical supervision.

Who’s Sent to the PICU?

Children go to the PICU if they are critically ill, require intensive care, and have medical needs that cannot be provided in the hospital’s general medical area. This may incorporate children with serious infections, severe breathing problems from asthma, some complications of diabetes, or those involved in a severe accident or near-drowning.

In some cases, sick or injured children who were adequately stable to be cared for on the medical-surgical floors move to the PICU if they become more intensely ill. In fact, after major surgery, numerous kids get care in the PICU for quite a while.

How long children stay in the PICU relies upon their condition. Some kids may stay a single day, while others remain for weeks or even months. As usual, if you have any questions, you may always inquire about the doctor or nurse caring for your child.

Who Takes Care of Critically Ill Pediatric Patients In The PICU?

The pediatric critical care unit has several highly qualified professionals. They usually come from different departments in a hospital that work together to provide family centred care for critically ill children. Commonly these include:

Nurses

The nurses in the PICU are knowledgeable in providing care for critically ill patients in the children’s hospital. In fact, a PICU nurse offers minute-by-minute care for sick children.

Doctors

Generally, the attending physicians are in charge of your kid. However, your child may get care from various doctors depending on your child’s needs. These may include:

• Pediatric intensivists who are trained in giving pediatric intensive care.
• Cardiologists are the specialists qualified to treat conditions related to the cardiovascular system.
• Neurosurgeons, if your child has a brain injury or damage.
• Respiratory therapists are qualified people who can use ventilators and other breathing machines often used for PICU patients with breathing problems.
• Social workers help families cope with the emotional struggles of having a critically ill child.
• Child life specialists help sick children understand and manage to be in the hospital.

In addition, the PICU team might incorporate residents and PICU fellows. They are professionals who have completed medical schools and are training to be pediatricians or attending intensivists. Furthermore, pharmacists, nutritionists, physical therapists, and occupational therapists may also play a role in your child’s treatment care.

What To Expect While in the PICU?

It can be surprising to see different medical equipment used to care for your kid. These devices have display panels and alarms, and the lights and noise can be overwhelming.

In any case, your child’s stay in the intensive care unit may include:

Intravenous Catheters

Almost all children in the PICU have an IV or intravenous catheter for fluids and medicines. You can usually see this thing in the arms or hands, yet at times, it can be in the legs, feet, or even scalp. IVs are soft plastic tubes inserted into the vein with a tiny needle. The healthcare staff will remove the needle in the vein, leaving just the thin, flexible tubing.

In some cases, enormous IVs are necessary to provide more significant liquids and medications. These are called central lines since the doctor inserts them into the bigger, more central veins of the neck, groin, or chest. Another thing is the arterial lines. They are similar to IVs, but the doctor places them in arteries, not veins. Know that arterial lines are not for providing fluids or medicine. Instead, they help monitor blood pressure and oxygen levels in the blood.

Medications

Some medications can have dangerous side effects. So these require close monitoring in the PICU whenever given to sick children. Instead of giving a child medicine every few hours, the healthcare staff continuously provides the medications using the drips. Specialists might utilize these medications, such as dopamine, epinephrine, and morphine, to assist with heart work, blood pressure, or relief from discomfort.

Monitors

Monitors are the device that shows a piece of information and could imply the difference between life and death. In fact, these shows the child’s heart rate and breathing rate. Doctors or nurses secure this machine to the child’s body using small painless stickers connected to wires. Also, many PICU patients receive pulse oximetry machines to check blood oxygen levels. Again, this device is also painless whenever a professional attach it to the fingers or toes.

Tests

Doctors might arrange an assortment of tests to get more information, for example, blood tests and urine tests. They will also need to test the brain and spinal cord in some cases. For that, they may take an X-ray, CT or CAT scan, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to get pictures or images of the different parts of the body.

Ventilators

Some patients in the PICU require additional help to breathe. This might imply getting extra oxygen from a mask or tubing in the nose. However, a kid needs to be attached to a breathing machine known as the ventilator to get that extra help.

The doctors or nurses place a tube into the windpipe through the nose or mouth to connect this machine. Or then again, insert it directly through the skin into the windpipe. Though there are various types of ventilators, all of these can assist a kid with breathing.

Family-Centred Care Service

Families are a significant part of the care team in the PICU. In fact, a familiar face to a sick kid can help ease anxiety and speed their recovery. And parents are there to provide love and support. Yet, you should not feel that you need to remain at your kid’s bedside all day long. Getting away from the area briefly or even leaving the hospital grounds can help you get your thoughts together.

That is why choosing a committed, highly trained team of professionals can help support and reassure you that your child will be well cared for. Remember that getting enough rest is essential to your health so that you can support your child throughout the PICU stay.

References:

Recognizing critically ill children with a modified pediatric early warning score at the emergency department, a feasibility study.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30413883/

What ventilators do and their role in COVID-19.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/what-is-a-ventilator

MRI.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/mri/about/pac-20384768

Pulse Oximetry.

https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/lung-procedures-and-tests/pulse-oximetry