As prepared by Chris Nickson, here are the practice questions from the last written exam practice session at The Alfred ICU, with recommended reading from LITF.com’s Critical Care Compendium and other FOAM sources:
Q1.
A 34-year-old woman is intubated and ventilated following a prolonged generalized tonic-clonic seizure. Initial non-contrast CT brain shows an extensive right-sided intracerebral haemorrhage.
- List the 5 most likely underlying causes in this case (10%)
- Outline your initial approach to blood pressure control, including your rationale (35%)
- Discuss the surgical interventions that may be indicated (35%)
- What factors are important for determining prognosis in intracerebral haemorrhage (20%)
Learn more here:
http://lifeinthefastlane.com/ccc/intracerebral-haemorrhage/
Q2.
A 50 year-old man has had a third MET call in 24 hours for fever and tachycardia. He is 8 days post-induction chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukaemia and has a neutrophil count of 0.1 x 10E9/L. He has no comorbidities. His observations at present are T39C (axillary), P150/min, BP 90/55 mmHg, RR 25/min, SpO2 95%OA. He is alert and orientated with no focal neurological deficits.
Outline your approach to management of this case over the next 24 hours.
Learn more here:
http://lifeinthefastlane.com/ccc/febrile-neutropaenia/
http://lifeinthefastlane.com/ccc/initial-sepsis-management/
Q3.
Regarding infection control:
- List the WHO’s ‘5 moments of hand hygiene’ and explain their underlying rationale (30%)
- How should hand hygiene be performed following contact with a patient with known or suspected Clostridium difficile infection? (10%)
- Outline the 3 different types of transmission-based precautions, including their indications (60%)
Learn more here:
http://lifeinthefastlane.com/ccc/transmission-based-precautions/
http://lifeinthefastlane.com/ccc/hand-hygiene/
You can access all the previous practice questions since 2014 here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Ta8IvVaVtc5Il7-kJwj6qKGu54OmifJGRUWCXud8dY/edit
See this link on INTENSIVE for exam resources:
https://intensiveblog.com/resources/#3