Hello all! My units been doing Berlins only for about a year now and our previous patients have all been babies. Our current patient is two. Our unit does not send vads to step down and this pt is a total floor status kid. No iv meds, ng feeds,stable and was previously healthy and just wants to run and be a toddler. Thing is she's paired now because she's stable and while her mom never leaves and is pretty god about entertaining her there are just some days when she's in her room screaming because she's bored and we can't let her out of the stroller because she will just run off. Our child life is a joke, we can't get volunteers, pt/ot doesn't come for long or on weekends and if we're lucky we can get her out for a walk or two I the hall. Usednto take her outside but with her being paired and the recent spike in our acuity we can't scrounge up two vad trained RNs (per our policy) to get her out. What do you with these kids all day? Mom needs breaks too sometimes, she doesn't leave the hospital but showers and leaves to eat and kiddo just sits in her room screeching for attention if mom is gone. She's pretty good with her toys but it gets to a point I just feel bad that we have to confine her to the stroller and her room all day.
Also as a side question of interest, what do you do for dressing changes in this ave group? Sedation/no sedation? Just curious.
Thanks for the insight, we're still learning with these kids but so far our success rate has been good.
If only the amount of frustration caused to nurse got her higher on the transplant list...
I wish. And for the record we're not frustrated with her, she is exceptionally well loved by our unit, very cute and a delightful little girl, we are frustrated with the situation. She needs entertainment and someone to teach her preschool things and interaction with other children and an outlet for her extremely high levels of energy (much more than your typical CICU toddler who are usually post op ASD/VSD and Fontans), we try to get her out a few times a day to "race" us around the unit but it's just not enough for the amount of energy she has.
How horrible. In our PICU, we have volunteers (we can have "special requests if the nurses call down to the volunteer dept") for active PICU kids although this is rare to happen. Also, I ask childlife for crafts for these kids. I pop them in their cot and give them crafts - it makes a mess but it lets hte kids be kids. Involves in teh end changing the sheets but that's easy in teh cot. Paint etc.
I wish. And for the record we're not frustrated with her, she is exceptionally well loved by our unit, very cute and a delightful little girl, we are frustrated with the situation.
For the record this is exactly what I meant. :-) I also wish how much we loved the patient or family got them higher on the list. Breaks my heart when the ones who you know would just 'fly' with a new organ die on the list.
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JeanOfAllTraits
87 Posts
If only the amount of frustration caused to nurse got her higher on the transplant list...