ICU Presentation

What is an ICU Presentation Template?

Rounding is typically done daily in an intensive care unit (ICU), and involves various members of the patient’s care team, including consultant doctors, specialists, junior doctors, nurses, and students. The practice of rounding is undertaken to get all team members up-to-speed on the patient’s condition and any significant events that have occurred over the past 24 hours since the previous day's rounds. 

Rounding also enables the patient’s care team to make informed, collaborative decisions about the best next steps for the patient and coordinate the patient’s care across multiple departments. 

As such, presenting a patient concisely, accurately, and thoroughly during ICU rounds is an important skill to develop as a doctor, nurse, or other health professional involved in ICU rounding.

Presenting patients succinctly and accurately is a crucial skill that junior doctors must develop during the early years of their training, and following a structured template like the one provided here is a great way to practice.

This ICU Presentation Template provides a comprehensive and structured approach to presenting patients and introduces many terms that will become familiar in the ICU.

How does it work?

This Printable ICU Presentation Template is a valuable tool, but using it correctly and with discretion is important to give the best patient presentations. To get the most out of this resource, just follow the steps below:

Step 1: Patient orientation

Provide a concise overview of the patient's background, including age, gender, and relevant social factors, days in hospital, and days since surgery. Summarize their medical history, emphasizing chronic conditions and previous surgeries. Clearly articulate the reason for ICU admission, outlining the primary diagnosis, complications, and the timeline of events. 

Present the patient's current clinical status, highlighting vital signs and any changes since the last presentation. Finally, add a brief statement of your own interpretation of the patient’s current status (i.e. stable, improving, declining, etc.). 

Step 2: Systems review

Systematically review the relevant physiological systems. Discuss cardiovascular status, including heart rate and blood pressure. Address respiratory health, detailing ventilator settings and oxygenation. If applicable, touch on gastrointestinal function, renal function, neurological status, nutritional support, risk reduction, or hematology. 

Step 3: Add actionable items to your to-do list

Once your team has decided on the plan for your patient, add actionable items to the To-Do list. This might include consultations with specialists, collaborations with other healthcare professionals, and ongoing discharge planning. 

Encourage interactive discussions, considering patient preferences, values, and goals in the decision-making process.

When would you use this template?

This template will be most useful on ICU rounds for physicians or nurses building their confidence in presenting patients to the team.

As such, it can be used daily during rounds as a presentation tool.

This template can also be a note-taking tool for planning your patient presentation, even if you don’t choose to use the presented structure.

This template can be used for students or those observing the ICU rounding process to practice distilling key information and gain familiarity with the patient presentation process before you actually have to present.

The structured format of this ICU Presentation Template will prove invaluable during the systematic review of physiological systems. This step ensures a thorough examination of the cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, neurological, and other relevant systems, providing a holistic view of the patient's health.

Specific health practitioners who may especially benefit from having this template in their toolbox include:

• Physicians and resident doctors
• Junior doctors and medical trainees
• Medical and nursing students
• Nurses and nurse practitioners
• Allied health professionals

Benefits of this ICU Presentation Template

Focus on pertinent information

One of the key functions of this template is to allow you to focus on important results by filling in the relevant sections. This allows you to condense your ICU presentations, ensuring that important information is not lost in a stream of irrelevant data and normal results.

Cover key results

We have provided examples of the sorts of laboratory and diagnostic test results that might be relevant for each system review in the ICU. These allow you to gain familiarity with typical tests conducted and the many acronyms associated with each.

Pre-formatted template

Structuring your patient presentation clearly ensures seamless communication and reduces confusion among your team members. This template is pre-formatted with subjective information, objective information, and plan sections for each body system- allowing you to save time formatting and focus on the key results.

Digital or print and fill-out

Whether you like to keep your work digital or are a fan of pen and paper, this template can help you. Utilize the fillable PDF template, or print it out and fill it in by hand if you prefer.

Structure your presentation

The template not only organizes your information, it is also formatted in the order you would typically present this information- with key patient information at the beginning to orient your team to the patient’s condition, followed by more detailed system reviews.