Advance directives – Instructions to one's family, physician and others, which describe an individual's preferences for medical treatment to be used when the individual becomes incapacitated. Advance directives include living wills, durable power of attorney (healthcare) and surrogate decision-makers.
Attending physician – The primary physician who is ultimately responsible for decisions made about patient care.
Chronic patient – A patient who stays in the ICU more than 14 days.
Critical care – The medical care provided to people with an immediate life-threatening illness or injury associated with single or multiple organ failure.
Critical care continuum – The series of events that begins when the critically ill or injured person first receives medical treatment, through transport and stabilization, and throughout hospitalization and recovery.
Critical care unit (CCU) – A location in the hospital where critical care is provided. Also referred to as the intensive care unit (ICU).
Do Not Resuscitate Order – An order on a person's chart that instructs physicians and nurses not to attempt to restart the person's heart or restore respiration in the event of heart or respiratory failure.
Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare – The legal document which gives another person, a surrogate decision-maker, the authority to make healthcare decisions on behalf of a person if that person is unable to do so.
Extubation – The removal of an endotracheal tube (a plastic tube put into the larynx, or windpipe, to deliver oxygen to the lungs).
ICU – Intensive care unit. The same as critical care unit.
Informed consent – The practice of informing a person about alternatives of treatment prior to getting his or her consent for medical care.
Intensivist – A physician whose medical practice is focused entirely on the care of the critically ill or injured.
Intravenous (IV) lines – Tubes inserted into the veins to deliver medicine and nutrients.
Intubation – The insertion of an endotracheal tube (a plastic tube put into the larynx, or windpipe, to deliver oxygen to the lungs).
Life support – Treatment that includes mechanical ventilation, nutrition and hydration other than by mouth, support of the heart, and other medical interventions to prolong life.
Living will – A document that requests no life-support treatment that merely prolongs the dying process in the event of a terminal illness. It is the individual's responsibility to notify his or her family and physician of the existence of a living will.
LOS – Length of stay.
Morbidity – Disease or disability.
Multiprofessional – The coordinated efforts of several disciplines to achieve a common goal.
Myocardial infarction – Heart attack.
Respirator/ventilator – A machine that is attached to the endotracheal tube, or windpipe, to deliver oxygen to the lungs to help a person breathe.
Respiratory therapist – A healthcare practitioner who is specially trained to assist in caring for people who have respiratory problems, or who are using respirators/ventilators.
Sepsis/septic shock – Overwhelming infection that causes heart, blood vessel and cell dysfunction.
Triage - Medical assessment of patients to determine their relative priority for treatment, based on the severity of illness or injury.
Tube feeding – A process of providing nourishment and hydration (food and water) to people when they can't eat normally. Tubes are placed through the nose (nasogastric tube), in a vein (total parental nutrition), or directly in the stomach (gastronomy tube).
