Cardiac Cath Lab Prep and Recovery Unit

[annsgambit]

Hi Does anyone work in a Prep and Recovery unit for Cardiac Cath Lab? We are trying to redesign our work flow. How do you make assignments? How many admissions to each nurse? To each aide? Do your unlicensed personnel pull arterial sheaths? Can you describe the flow of your day? Any and all input is greatly appreciated!

[Lennonninja, MSN, APRN, NP]

I was a nurse intern on a floor like this a few years ago and I loved it! We had 11 beds total, and used a heck of a lot of team work to get everyone ready for the cath lab on time. If we were full with 11, I think we had 4 RNs, 1 LPN, and 1 monitor tech/secretary. This hospital severely limited what LPNs were allowed to do, so the RNs did the assessments, but the LPN did all of the IV starts on every patient, got everyone on the monitor, helped pull sheaths, and called the patients for the next day and did their admission databases to help out for the following day. We did have 1 unlicensed person who was trained to assist with sheath pulls (holding pressure), but 2 RNs had to be in the room for the first 10 mins, and do the actual pulling. The cath lab started at 7am, so day shift started at 6am. Usually 2 admits scheduled for 6am, 1-2 for 6:30am, 2 for 7am, and so on... The mornings were crazy at times, but this crew was fantastic and worked together wonderfully. I don't know if that's helpful at all, but that's what I can remember from a few years ago!