Life lessons after a career in intensive care medicine

I have spent the past 30 years working in intensive care medicine. I was drawn to intensive care as a trainee for several reasons. First, I enjoyed the opportunity to care for the sickest patients in the hospital and to use technology, evidence, and experience to try to save their lives. Second, I enjoyed the interprofessional teamwork that is inherent to high-quality intensive care. I enjoyed being “the physician in charge” and knowing that my expertise was nearly useless without the amazing interprofessional team that works together in the intensive care unit. Finally, whether we could save a patient’s life, I was honored by the privilege to care for patients and their families during this incredibly difficult time in their lives—to find ways to support them in all realms including physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. In fact, this final reason for my interest in intensive care was the motivating factor for my research career: I wanted to find evidence-based ways to communicate with and support seriously ill patients and their families during and after critical illness. …