[heartnurseinva]

Originally Posted by heartICU

We have twelve cardiac surgeons, and probably twice that many PAs, and do anywhere from 15-25 hearts a day, depending on the season, day of the week, etc. According to the stats the heart center puts out, we did 3,651 open heart procedures last year. (I'm at the busiest cardiac program in the country, at least that is what our dept chair says).

Wow, you have HUGE service!! Where hospital are you in? Cleveland Clinic?
We have 10 surgeons and 8 P.A.s. and 4 NPs. What do your PAs do? Sounds like your nurses do alot of our PAs responsibilities. Our PAs are second assist to the surgeon in the OR ~~open/close & harvest the grafts in the OR + round all day and constantly put out fires. I don't know what I would do without them.
When I was in North Carolina, there was only 1 PA to the group and she wore street clothes and a white coat...boy, she must have it easy!!!
Also while I was in NC, they were using Presidex?...we use Diprivan...what about your facility?

[sarahRN482]

I work on a surgical cardiac step down unit in central IL and we (staff nurses) don't pull out chest tubes or pacing wires. Usually the Doc's nurses pull out the CT's, Doc's pull out the pacing wires (as they should!). As far as JP's, we do those..but luckily most of our patients come out of the Cardiac ICU with almost everything out, except CT's. Now there are those occassions where the pt's decide to pull the wires/tubes/drains out themselves...that's always fun!

[hrtprncss]

The other institution I used to work for before had more CV surgery groups and we were expected to d'c pacers/ct/jp and of course all the other lines....When I moved to another where there was only a few surgeons, the PA's and the NP's did this during their morning rounds.

[Ruby Vee]

While nurses at my present job don't pull chest tubes, I did at my previous job in Seattle. I usually asked the family to step out, too. It can be a somewhat messy process, and I find it easier to concentrate on what I'm doing and get the job done if there's no one at my elbow asking questions. We pulled both plueral and mediastinal tubes on our CABG and valve patients. Our VAD patients, we left the chest tubes for the residents to pull.

[newRN09]

In our NICU, the nurses pull chest tubes.

Christine, RNC, BSN

Originally Posted by heartnurseinva

I work on a cardiac surgery step-down floor in Virginia. Recently, visiting my grandfather in North Carolina, his nurse asked me to step out while she pulled my grandfather's tubes. (I think I made her uncomfortable) I was surprised. I mean really, it is nothing to pull a mediastinal tube, but what about everyone else out there..what is your institutions practice? Where I work the cardiac surgery PAs pull the CTs and the epicardial wires.
Also, those of you who do pull tubes, what about pleural tubes? Thanks for your input!!