Critical Care and Flight Nursing
A critical care nurse is ‘a registered nurse who has the right knowledge, skills, and competencies to meet the needs of a critically ill patient without direct supervision. The knowledge, skills and competencies they require to nurse critically ill patients should reflect the level of patient need, rather than being determined by the patient care environment (for example, a high dependency or intensive care unit).’ (RCN, 2003, Guidance for nursing staff in critical care). Flight nursing is the specialty concerned with nurses working in any flight setting. Use this guide to find information resources related to critical care and flight nursing including books, reports and journal articles.
Last updated:
02/05/2023
RCN Learning
RCN: Introducing critical care
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This programme will provide the participant with resources to support an introduction to critical care for the nursing and midwifery workforce. It is free for everyone to access.
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COVID-19
RCN: COVID-19 (coronovirus)
Gould D and Purssell E (2021) RCN Independent review of guidelines for the prevention and control of Covid-19 in health care settings in the United Kingdom: evaluation and messages for future infection-related emergency planning. London: RCN.
Royal College of Nursing (no date) RCN position on self-isolation of in-flight nursing crews. London: RCN.
Key Resources
Critical Care Network National Nurse Leads (2015) National competency framework for registered nurses in adult critical care (Step competency framework), (no place): CC3N.
Cochrane systematic reviews: Browse by topic
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Systematic reviews from the Cochrane Library. Topics include pain and anaesthesia
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The Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and Intensive Care Society (2019) The transfer of the critically ill adult,. London: ICS.
The Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (2019) Guidelines for the provision of intensive care services. 2nd edn. London: FICM.
Royal College of Nursing (2016) Revalidation for flight nurses in the UK: RCN guidance, London: RCN.
Royal College of Physicians (2017) National Early Warning Score (NEWS) 2: Standardising the assessment of acute-illness severity in the NHS. Updated report of a working party. London: RCP.
We would like to thank the RCN Critical Care and Flight Nursing member community for their input into the development of this subject guide.
Books
Peate I and Dutton H (2021) Acute nursing care: recognising and responding to medical emergencies. 2nd edn. Abingdon: Routledge.
Adam S, Osborne S, Welch J (editors) (2017) Critical care nursing: science and practice (3rd edition), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Baid H, Creed F and Hargreaves J (editors) (2016) Oxford handbook of critical care nursing (2nd edition), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Evans C (2016) Oxford specialist handbook of retrieval medicine, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Finch J (2017) Acute and critical care nursing at a glance, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Good V and Kirkwood P L (eds.) (2018) Advanced critical care nursing. 2nd edn. St. Louis: Elsevier.
Hickman R (2018) Handbook of clinical nursing: critical and emergency care nursing, New York: Springer.
Ortiz-Ruiz G and Dueñas-Castell C (editors) (2017) Sepsis, New York: Springer.
Parsons P and Wiener-Kronish J (eds.) (2018) Critical care secrets. 6th edn. Amsteram: Elsevier.
Sole M L, Klein D G, Moseley M J, Makic M B F and Morata L T (2021) Introduction to critical care nursing. 8th edn. St. Louis: Elsevier.
Urden L, Stacy K and Lough M (eds.) (2022) Critical care nursing: diagnosis and management. 9th ed. Maryland Heights: Elsevier.
Book subject searches
Use these links to see details of books on each topic.
Journal articles
Use these links to see details of journal articles on each topic.
Journals
Journals of interest for continence care. Use these links to see details of availability.
Explore
Critical care reviews : newsletter, meeting presentations, studies, review articles, guidelines and more
The bottom line: summaries and critiques of landmark papers on critical care
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Dawn Williams
Editor of this guide
RCN Library and Archive Service
Upcoming events relating to this subject guide
Page last updated - 02/05/2023
