Intensive Care Unit (ICU)

The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) provides care for critically ill patients. Our nurse-patient ratio of 1:2 allows these nurses to focus fully on their complex patients. Critical thinking is especially important in this unit.

Teamwork is one of the many strengths demonstrated in the ICU. Physicians, respiratory therapists, and registered nurses all work together in a supportive and collaborative manner.

A critical care nurse is a licensed professional nurse who is responsible for making sure that critically ill patients and their families receive optimal care. The critical care nurses are an integral part of the Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center.

In addition to Basic Life Support certification (BLS, also know as CPR), all critical care nurses are required to maintain certification in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS). This training involves techniques of resuscitating a patient in cardiopulmonary arrest.

Some critical care nurses have also obtained certification with the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN).