14．臨床工学技士の役割—工学と医学をつなぎ，ICUでのスムーズな多職種連携を支える

The perspective from practice as a clinical engineer

臨床工学技士は，臨床と工学の両方を担当する日本独自の医療専門職であり，医療職として初めて多職種連携が法律に明記された職種である。工学的な視点をもって診療に臨み，医療機器の専門家として安全と質を保証し，ICUにおけるスムーズな診療を支えることが，多職種チームにおける臨床工学技士の役割である。呼吸，循環，血液浄化などの領域で工学的なアプローチを行い，ほかの医療職とは異なる視点で患者のケアに携わっている。より深い専門性と多職種との協力体制で医療を提供するためには，ICUの医療チームと日常的にコミュニケーションがとれる専任スタッフの存在が望まれる。ICUで働く臨床工学技士は，複数の専門職と連携して働くICUスペシャリストであるべきである。

Clinical engineers, a medical profession unique to Japan, are responsible for both clinical and engineering work. The Clinical engineer is the first medical profession for which multidisciplinary collaboration is clearly stated in the law. The role of the Clinical engineer in a multidisciplinary team is to provide medical care from an engineering perspective, to assure safety and quality as a medical device expert and support smooth medical care in the ICU. Clinical engineers are involved in patient care from a different perspective than other medical professionals by taking an engineering approach in areas such as respiration, circulation, and blood purification. To provide medical care with deeper expertise and a cooperative system with multiple professions, it is desirable to have a full-time staff member who can communicate with the ICU medical team on a daily basis. Clinical engineers working in the ICU should be ICU specialists who work in collaboration with people from multiple professions.