does anyone use swans anymore?

Published

Call me crazy, but I have decided to retest rather than get ceu's to re-up my ccrn certification. I did ceu's the first time I renewed, but feel like studying and retesting will give me the knowledge that I want. I'm nervous about hemos however as we rarely use swans anymore. Not using that information daily has lead to me losing everything I once knew...normal values, calculations etc. A big part of the test did require use of this information to get the right answer. My question is, do other hospitals still use swans alot? How can I prepare for this portion of the test? Back when I originally tested every other patient in our unit had a swan...now, maybe one every 4 months or so. Any advice?

Specializes in icu/er.

we'll get a few a month. it seems we get enough to keep you upto date on it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.

We don't use Swans very often at all, it's a general ICU.

I just did the Viva for the general intensive care nursing course and when we discussed Swans it was acknowledged by the examiners that these are few and far between.

We currently use a Nico machine to get cardiac output studies done on septic patients.

Cardiac patients usually go to the Heart and Lung centre in the next town so we don't get them.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion