arterial sheath puling post cath

[anurse4life]

hello!! i searched through other threads and found some great information, but i need more.

hoping someone can help.......

i am employed in a pre-post cardaic cath area. we have begun to train to pull sheaths.

my questions are.....

is there a standard policy for sheath pulling in north carolina?

is anyone willing to share their hospital policies with me?

in your hospital do you pull femoral, brachial, radial?

is it just diagnostic sheaths or do you pull with anticoagulants present?

how many staff members in a room during a sheath pull?

is it a rn-rn or a rn-lpn or a rn-nursing assistant or rn- tech or do you pull alone?

we want to be standard with other hospitals across north carolina and the USA

thank you in advance for any insight you are willing to give me.

[UnbrokenRN09, BSN]

I've still never had a pt vagal. I think it must be rare?!?!? Not that I ever want it to happen. Has anyone ever had a pull go really bad on them? Mine have all been pretty much text book with no problems. I actually like pulling sheaths, now that my fingers have finally toughened up. I even had a pt tell me the other day that I was in his top 3 and he'd had like 29 sheath pulls over the past 20 years, so that made me feel pretty good!

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

I have probably pulled around a thousand arterial sheaths, primarily femoral, but also radial, brachial and 1 axillary. Used to use a Compressar (C clamp) all the time, but it doesn't work very well with calcified vessels or with the morbidly obese. And after losing the pulse in a leg using a Compressar I swore it off. But when my hands and fingers got sore I left the cardiac recovery unit. Saw a few vagal reactions, usually related to pain. They always say the same thing "I don't feel so good", HR 30, BP 70.

Retroperitoneal bleeds: scary; acute stent reocclusion: very scary; a cold, gray pulseless leg: sickening. My coworker had one patient exsanguinate (had a clotting disorder that no one knew about) and heard about an obese pt that had a failed Angioseal that bled out into her leg.

Never ignore a backache, especially one that pain meds won't touch.

[LoveANurse09]

I have probably pulled around a thousand arterial sheaths, primarily femoral, but also radial, brachial and 1 axillary. Used to use a Compressar (C clamp) all the time, but it doesn't work very well with calcified vessels or with the morbidly obese. And after losing the pulse in a leg using a Compressar I swore it off. But when my hands and fingers got sore I left the cardiac recovery unit. Saw a few vagal reactions, usually related to pain. They always say the same thing "I don't feel so good", HR 30, BP 70.

Retroperitoneal bleeds: scary; acute stent reocclusion: very scary; a cold, gray pulseless leg: sickening. My coworker had one patient exsanguinate (had a clotting disorder that no one knew about) and heard about an obese pt that had a failed Angioseal that bled out into her leg.

Never ignore a backache, especially one that pain meds won't touch.

Yes! Or that full belly feeling that they complain about!

[bb86]

Ok WOW. I still consider myself a new nurse, graduated Aug of 08, and I pull sheaths. On my unit we ONLY use manual pressure and we do not have another nurse in the room. Its so interesting to read how many of you are required to have another nurse in the room. The only time another nurse comes in is doing a "site check" unless we call out for help of course.