Sepsis and Infection

Assessment Criteria

Guidance for the assignment:

The written assignment will make up 100% of your total mark for this course.
Your answer should demonstrate an ability to critically appraise clinical research and summarise your conclusions.
Your answer should make reference to your previous or existing practice and how / why it may change using the evidence discussed to justify your recommendations.
The answer to the questions should not exceed a total of 2000 words (+/- 10%) excluding the reference list.
You should list a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 20 relevant references at the end of the question and you must use Vancouver style.
You should adhere to the style guidance below.
Question

There is a large body of literature available regarding the approach to fluid therapy as part of the management of a patient presenting to a critical care service with severe sepsis. Please critically appraise this evidence to provide discussion and recommendations on the following four topics:

What volume of fluid should be administered in severe sepsis?
What type of fluid should be used in severe sepsis?
What is the role for invasive or non-invasive techniques to predict fluid responsiveness in severe sepsis?
What is the current role of care bundles in the management of severe sepsis and how has this changed since Early Goal Directed Therapy was introduced in 2001?
Your submission should be in the form of an academic blog post. You may present your work as a single blog post or as four separate “mini-blog posts”. The word count can be split across the questions at your discretion. Structuring your answer with the following sub-headings may be helpful but there is no requirement to do so:

Introduction to the role and rationale of fluid therapy in sepsis
What is the optimal volume of fluid?
What is the optimal type of fluid?
Prediction of fluid response?
The current role of care bundles in the management of severe sepsis?
Key recommendations(bullet points)
Each question will be marked according to the following criteria:

Understanding of the topic
Ability to identify relevant literature
Critical judgement
Ability to use relevant literature to present a concise and considered approach to the clinical question and to make recommendations on how the evidence should inform clinical practice
Style Guidance

Your submission should be created in Microsoft Word. It should not exceed 2000 words (+/- 10%) in length (not including tables, figures or reference lists) a penalty will be applied for submissions in excess of this limit and should be written in an appropriate academic style. Credit will be given for quality of academic writing.

There are many blog posts available online which vary in quality. An example of a post which the faculty consider provides appropriate critical appraisal and presentation of valid conclusions is available at https://emcrit.org/pulmcrit/covid-steroid-2/ . Students should not aim to replicate this style exactly.