cardiorn04

Latest Activity

1. IABP Removal

   cardiorn04 replied to BJRN76's topic in CCU

   At my hospital, the MD pulls the IAB and we use the FemoStop. We then treat it as a usual sheath removal (FemoStop on for about an hour, then wedge pressure dressing on for 6 hours). There are many things that can happen during the dc of an IAB (lik...

2. Any good review test for csc?

   cardiorn04 replied to kmihaek's topic in CCU

   I bought the CSC study disc from AACN. It was review of hemodynamics, etc--not as helpful as I would have liked. I went through the blueprint as a studyguide and used Carol Jacobson's book "Cardiovascular Nursing Practice." This is an awesome book. A...

3. Optilink

   cardiorn04 replied to InfoRN's topic in Management

   We have used Optilink (PCSS) for several years. What we have found out is that it doesn't weight critical care patients appropriately. For example, one night, we had 2 patients (each with CRRT & IABP) that were 2:1. We had 4 other patients in the...

4. Blake CT with JP

   cardiorn04 replied to cardiorn04's topic in CCU

   I understand that is is so much better for the patient in terms of ambulating, etc. Is there any research out there that we can cite for our policy/procedures?

5. IV Methylene blue post OHS vasoplegia

   cardiorn04 replied to RN12345656's topic in CCU

   We just used this on a patient the other night. And sure enough, we went way down on the pressors fairly quickly. Does anyone have a policy/protocol for given methylene blue?

6. Blake CT with JP

   cardiorn04 posted a topic in CCU

   We just hired a new cardiac surgeon and he has been attaching a JP bulb to the mediastinal CT before transferring patients to the step-down unit. The reasoning is that patients can be more ambulatory and have less pain. Does anyone else do this? We a...

7. chest tube removal

   cardiorn04 replied to corkyrn's topic in CCU

   At my hospital, we have a policy that RNs may pull mediastnal CT only. However, the surgeon or the PA usually end up pulling the mediastinal and pleural CTs at the same time. I have only pulled 3 mediastinal CTs in my career.:heartbeat

8. Do your charge nurses have assignments?

   cardiorn04 replied to nrsang97's topic in CCU

   For almost a year, we did not take patients (unless we were really short-staffed). It was nice to be able to mentor the new grads and help out as needed. We also have a checklist of multiple tasks to be done (to satisfy JCAHO, Medicare, etc), which i...

9. Staffing Ratio for VAD Patients

   cardiorn04 posted a topic in CCU

   :prdnrs: I'm curious as to how other facilities are staffing their VAD patients. We use the Abiomed AB5000. We have not done very many VADs, so we currently staff them 2:1. With our last one, we felt that the patient reached a point where she could h...