Pediatric Cardiac Nursing Reading suggestions please

I am the UBE for a PCICU. Anything by Mary Fran Hazinski will be perfect, but we use "Care of the Critically Ill Child"

Another one yu might look at is Core Curriculum for Pediatric Critical Care Nursing from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. It covers everything that could be found on the PCC certification exam, and the section on CHD is huge. Their black-and-white pencil diagrams are hard to decipher though. My all time favourite is the website Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. They have animated diagrams of the defects and their circulation, their repairs and their post-op circulation too. When you see it right there in front of you it makes it that much more real, and you'll find that you understand better what you see in the patient, why the orders say what they do and what you're going to do if things go wrong. A good grasp of cardiac anatomy and physiology will be crucial for you.

As for journals, I haven't found much out there that relates to pediatric critical care nursing at all. It's very disappointing. AACN's journals will sometimes have pediatric content, but it's sparse. If you find one, please let me know!

Anotther great refrence book is the"Field Guide to Congenital Hearts" I can't think of the author, but you can find it on Cardiotext.com.

Go to Cove Point Foundation - Congenital Heart Disease. You can order this field guide from that site. It's written by the cardiologists, surgeons, and others I use to work with. It's a cool site and manual.