From the Foreword by Julian Bion, Professor of Intensive Care Medicine, University of Birmingham

Ideal for any medic or health professional embarking upon an intensive care rotation or specialism, this simple bedside handbook provides handy, pragmatic guidance to the day-to-day fundamentals of working in an intensive care unit, often a daunting prospect for the junior doctor, nurse and allied health professional encountering this challenging environment for the first time.

Thoroughly updated, the second edition addresses recent and future developments in a variety of areas and is now organised into easy-to-read sections with clearly outlined learning goals.

New topics added include sepsis, ARDS, refractory hypoxia, the role of allied health professionals, post ICU syndrome and follow up, and consent and capacity including new DOLS guidance.

The book is authored by world-renowned contributors and edited by established consultants in the field of intensive care medicine.

This is a guide aimed at nurses, written by Phil Jevon, a nurse consultant in Walsall. It covers all the major systems:

• History Taking
• Cardiovascular
• Respiratory
• Gastrointestinal
• Genitourinary
• Neurological
• Musculoskeletal
• Assessment of the critically ill patient
• 
  

It is a pocket sized book, and because it is aimed at nurses, does not go into as much physiological and anatomical depth as some of the more medically based books tend to. Consequently it is smaller and as a result one of the cheaper options.

Dont let its price fool you though. As a basic starter and one you might want to carry around with you I can highly recommend this one to you.

Another heavier, medical oriented book. This is a book written by Australian doctors and is as good as Macleods. It is probably the balance between Jevon above and Macleods.

Again the illustrations are excellent and the chapters laid out in a logical way relating the examinations to some of the pathology which may be encountered.

Once more there is a DVD with the examinations being acted out in an OSCE type situation.

I would not like to say whether I would buy this or Macleods as they both have their merits, but I can say you wont be putting either of them in your pocket!

I love this book. It has a simple format which means that you are given an X ray image which is then interpreted for you on the next page. It is packed with useful information and yet still very easy to read. Honestly, if you want to know about any of these subjects I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

All of these are by John Hampton and if you are prepared to invest a little time and effort in working through these books in a logical order, you will surely reap the rewards. 

The ECG is broken down into its component parts and then the abnormalities explained with many, many good examples for you to have a go at. The example cases are presented so that you can try to interpret them first and then you can turn the page to see how right (or wrong!) you were.

I can genuinely say I enjoyed looking at ECG's for the first time when I worked through these books.

I have the desire to tell everyone of my passion for the Advanced Critical Care Practitioner Nurse role  and my firm belief that there are many potential great nurses out there who are capable of attaining wonderful things. 

This easy to read book gives some of the tools needed to ensure that any presentation you give, with the right preparation, will help to inspire others.

A fascinating book about how we should sometimes trust our gut feeling rather than over thinking things.

This book is a great read and one I could not put down.

Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose is what motivates those people who will go far in your organisation.

Its certainly what drives me in mine and the fabulous team I work with.

Lots of valuable information with some great ideas at the end to help you put the points into practice.