Improving the quality of training programs in intensive care: a view from the ESICM

Excerpt

Intensive care medicine (ICM) is a young specialty that is rapidly growing and changing [1, 2]. Originating out of the need to be able to provide primarily technology-centred single organ support, it has now developed into a speciality based around a holistic and humane practice able to deal with the most fragile of all human beings: those with sequential and progressive multiple organ failure [1]. Over the next few years we will be faced with great pressures to increase our capacity to care for critically ill patients, in part because of the changing demographics of the populations and in part due to the altered perceptions of what can be ultimately achieved [3]. The need for our knowledge and skills will therefore be greater than ever before and it is concerning to note that the future demand has been predicted to exceed what we are likely to be able to deliver [4, 5]. For this reason perhaps more than any other, we need to ensure that we can train the next generation of intensive care doctors to the right standards and in the necessary numbers. This training needs to provide each individual with the required knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours to be able to deliver ICM with the quality and safety our patients deserve and that society demands. …