Caring for a critically ill child can be stressful and difficult. This is especially true when your child is admitted into a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. However, what can help in times like these is an understanding of the PICU and its workings. Understanding the functioning of a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit can help ease some of the stress during the time of your child’s admission.

The PICU is a specialized unit of the hospital where the very sickest pediatric patients are admitted. Most PICUs are in tertiary care children’s hospitals, although smaller PICUs in community hospitals also exist.

Who gets admitted to the PICU? We admit any critically ill patient from newborn (if they’ve been home from the hospital–the patients admitted just after birth are sent to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, or NICU) to young adult. Although most of our patients are under the age of eighteen, some with rare diseases can be slightly older.

Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, this is an intensive care unit for children in serious medical situations.