Cardiac Monitoring of Pediatric Patients in Med Surg

[Vicki_RN]

Hi,

I am collecting data regarding the community standard for the use of a cardiac monitor, central or bedside, in the general pediatric hospital care areas. For those who work in a NON-ICU pediatric patient care floor, do you provide cardiac monitoring, is it central or just at the bedside, and which patients are considered for monitoring? I promise to post the numbers once I get replies for others who may be interested. Thank you for you help!

[Lisa Jane RN]

I work on a general paediatric floor in a community hospital that does not have a PICU.

We have bedside cardio-respiratory monitors.

They are used for certain patient populations ie. eating disorders, but we also use them for procedures requiring conscious sedation.

As well, monitoring may be included in certain order sets such as ALTE.

If at any time a patient becomes unstable we would initiate continuos monitoring.

We use a lot of spo2 monitoring as well for the respiratory kids.

Hope this helps :)