Clinical knowledge management in ICU

Abstract

Knowledge provides health professionals the power to improve health systems, has obvious benefits that could really make a difference in people's lives, something evident in an intensive care unit (ICU). In the field of critical medicine we are always faced with situations in which it is necessary to think quickly with the aim of processing the clinical information and the information obtained through the available technology, in order to establish a treatment and evaluate its effectiveness.

Management of knowledge (MK) is the key to patient care in these difficult situations, so we will have to plan and use the available knowledge: basic research, technology and clinical experience. In this way, the CG helps to improve the organization's objectives: it improves the care for pathologies and allows generating the necessary information for an improvement in the care of these patients. It implies an organizational vision in which people cooperate carrying out care processes based on evidence, efficacy and efficiency. Therefore, good talent management (human capital) is important with the push of new professionals and its combination with senior professionals who bring experience and values in cllinical practice.

Thus, knowledge management is a strategy that converts the intellectual values of organizations into an improvement in productivity, added value and increased competitiveness. Therefore, knowledge management consists of the production, distribution, storage, evaluation, transfer and in the practical management of that knowledge. The main drivers of in intensive care, is to structure the clinical knowledge (CK) for pathologies, promote and train in technology knowledge (TK) for diagnosis at bedside andorgan support; and the global knowledge of the organization (GK): with the obtaining of data with the information and communication technologies(ICT), the welfare quality and the security of the patient. Below I discuss from a clinical point of view how the CK should be structured within an ICU, as well as the areas that should be implemented in the future.