Abstract:
Critical care nursing is a specialty where nurses care for critically ill and unstable patients. The
nurse needs to understand how different acute illnesses can affect the human body and how a
patient’s comorbidities can affect their condition in the intensive units. Nursing students use case
studies to develop a plan of care for these patients and develop critical thinking skills. This
project is consistent with five nursing case studies focusing on patients in critical care units or
have a high acuity level. The case studies are based on patients from IU Health Hospital
Indianapolis from the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit, Surgical Progressive Care, Transplant
Intensive Care, and Medical Intensive Care Unit. Each study is broken down into eleven
sections, patient history, course of illness, pathophysiology, assessments, nutrition, diagnostics,
nursing diagnosis, drugs and IV solutions, medical interventions, patient safety and quality, and
interpretation, analysis, and synthesis. The case studies create a holistic picture of the patient and
the nursing care given on that clinical day.
