Preface

This book was inspired by my interest in medical education. I first began writing an internal handbook for the pediatric residents at Children’s Memorial Hospital in 2005. That book grew and inspired what is now this PICU handbook. I would like to acknowledge the pediatric residents and pediatric critical care fellows who gave feedback on the internal book over the past 10 years. It was their interest in having a resource that inspired me to create and refine the handbook and now to publish the book for medical students, residents, fellows, and advanced practice nurses at any institution.

The handbook is meant to be an easy reference guide. It is separated into Part I: General Pediatric Critical Care, which includes resuscitation and stabilization, critical care procedures, and pharmacology, and then Part II: Organ Systems, which includes sections on respiratory, cardiovascular, neurology, renal/fluids and electrolytes, hematology/oncology, endocrine, gastroenterology/nutrition/hepatology, environmental/toxicology emergencies, and allergy/immunology/genetics.

The intent is for this to be a pocket handbook that can be carried around and easily accessed for those working in the pediatric intensive care unit. This is intended to be a reference for pediatric residents, family medicine residents, emergency medicine residents, pediatric critical care fellows, emergency medicine fellows, surgical critical care fellows, pediatric hospitalists, pediatric nurse practitioners, and medical students.

I would like to thank the nurses, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, and nutritionists who taught me about the true multidisciplinary approach to pediatric critical care medicine. This book has authors from all these disciplines contributing to a truly multidisciplinary handbook.

The various contributors to this handbook also deserve thanks. Several contributors were former pediatric critical care fellows who worked with me on the internal handbooks throughout the years. These individuals shared an interest and passion in medical education.

I would like to thank the production staff at McGraw-Hill Education, especially Andrew Moyer, Senior Editor, who has guided me through the process.

Finally, I would like to thank Eli, Ilana, Rebecca, Noah and Shane, for all their support and for allowing me the time to work on this book. I also thank my children for contributing artwork to the internal editions of this book over the years. Lastly, I thank my parents, Dr. Irving and Betty Rozenfeld, for their unwavering support throughout my career.