[WNCrn]

Hey all, I'm a CICU RN in a regional MEDCEN. About every 2mths or longer we receive an IABP pt. Problem is few staff RNs are certified. Except for those, even less then few, staff Rns that have major experience in IABP there is nervousness because of the infreq exposure to the pump/hemodynamic lines/gtts involved in managing the pt. Well, primarily the pump. To be certified requires class, post test, 12hrs precepted, then an additional 12hrs with resource RN available. Pt nearly always isn't on the pump long enough to meet that time. So another 2months past. There is no maintenace cert program. Our new Nurse Dir is requiring all RN in the CCU be cert. Any ideas for a workable IABP program. Our staff is made up of approx 50 RNs. I'm thankful we have this forum.

[MIS]

I currently certified on IABP. The hospital I work at put a bunch of us through a 2-day training period. We also had to pass an oral exam type thing and then our first pump patient that we are assigned to we have a resource available to us. My first IABP on my own was little scary but after a couple hours of hands on, I became a little more comfortable with it.

Blake

[nurse-lou]

At my facility, all we have to do to be able to care for IABP pt is take an 8 hr class given by the Datascope company. We use the Datascope 98 IABP. Then when we are assigned to a IABP pt for the first time we are assigned a resource nurse for the shift.

[baseline]

Ditto nurse-lou.

[nimbex]

Datascope rep. if asked will do an inservice and provide manuals for training, get them to come in and schedule everyone you can. Then as for a trainer manual, I use this to train the staff for an 8 hour inservice each year for those who are interested, and every new staff member must attend 2 in their first 2 years. We hold yearly check off's on all catagory 2's and for the IABP I think of potential problems, depending on the persons experience and give them a senerio.... like CSICU slaves to the monitor... now you need to change it to a transport monitor to goto cat scan.... or simply attatch the syringe and show how to manually inflate the balloon.

If you have clinical nurses, 2 and 3, give this to them as a project, they are you resource people... the senior staff have a duty to train the newer nurses.

Plus, doesn't matter if a nurse hasn't had one. I just assigned a new stable IABP to a new nurse last night.... She had the class, no hands on.... I helped her admit, walker her through basic care(level, zero, settings) then added the helium change, disconnected the tubbing, kinked the tubbing, set the reference line and alams and checked on her frequently. It took tremendous time on my part with 2 vented patients of my own, but now I have another nurse with basic experience. Well worth my time... we get our pumps in spurts too and rotate them to keep the staff current

good luck

[hoolahan]

Yes, the datascope reps are great resources, also don't forget you have the 1-800 number on the back of any pump for support.

I worked in a CT ICU so we had pumps a lot. Can you guys hook u w a local hospitla to get the hours logged in, one that say has a CT ICU or open heart surergy program?? Maybe your nursing ed dept can work with theirs to accomplish this. When I worked in one ICU and we had to do hemodialysis on our ICU pt's (admit, this was waaay before the days of CAVH or CVVH) we were sent ot a local hospital that had a HD unit and logged in 40 hours to get certified, after our classroom time. It was pretty unusual b/c the hospitals were competitors too.

Other than that, contact the rep of whatever IABP you are using, have them send videos, booklets, timing cards, all the goodies and be sure you know how to reach them.

[healingtouchRN]

one might try orienting in the CV Lab where they are placed or in the CVICU where they have them about as often as CCU. We have both dept's & our nurses have some of the same troubles. Just make sure everyone goes through a basic training of the machine, most are alike, I trained on a 1970's version Kontron, that looked like a green refrigerator, then updated to my favorite a Datascope 90T, then the newer Datascopes. I try to have my new grads jump in help me do the set up & readings so that they all can keep current on what is going on. It's feast or famine with IAB's, you either have 5 simutaneuosly or none for 1 month. Same with PA catheters. Cross training is the best bet even though nurses hate it. I find it keeps me current. hope this helps!