Cardiac Tele/Stepdown

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Hi

My unit will be undergoing some changes soon. I'm on the Practice Council and was wondering if anyone would be interested in sharing information on how their Cardiac Tele Unit and/or Cardiac Stepdown Units operate.

Any information or direction would be greatly appreciated. Our next meeting is Feb 19 and I'm responsible for doing a little research.

Thanks!

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Are you asking what kind of patients each takes? What kind of training is needed?

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Are you asking what kind of patients each takes? What kind of training is needed?

Yes...What kind of patients and what kind of care your unit provides...how do you operate.

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We have a 51 bed Cardiovascular/Telemetry Unit, atleast 10 of those beds are stepdown(CVS)On the regular tele we take MI's, Cardiac Cath, PTCA with stents unless they are on Reopro or Integrillin and a Femoral approach was used-then they go to CVS, Patients on external Pacemakers- like 3 deg AV Block patients, 24 hr post op CABG or Valve Replacement patients. On the regular Tele we take Dobutrex,Natrecor Cardizem, Lidocaine; Reopro and Integrillin pre Cardiac cath or post if Radial approach was used. In the CVS unit we take patients with A-Lines, 24 hr post Open Heart with Mediastinal Chest Tubes, post Carotid Endarterectomy, post op Vascular patients- Fempops, Lysis, Endovascular AAA Repair all go to CVS for the first 24 hours then they go out to the regular telemetry floor. In CVS we have hardwire Vital sign machines that are portable and can be wheeled from one room to the other. Also in CVS we take Dopamine, Nitroglycerine, Primacor and Amiodarone Drips. Amiodarone Drips can go on the regular telemetry floor if patient is stable. To work in CVS unit they usually like experienced Nurses back there who have been through a special training program to work back there. We will be doing Aquaphersis in CVS- we all been trained to do it but so far no doctor has ordered it. We haveone charge Nurse for the entire floor and she must be CVS trained. On day shift there are also 4 Patient Care Facilators. On the telemetry part of floor 7a-7p shift nurse get 5-6 patients with a nurses aide and 7p-7a nurses get 7 with a nurses aide. In the CVS unit we usually get 3 patients on each shift with a nurses aide

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Thank you...your information is extremely helpful; sounds like we are a CVS unit already.

We have a 51 bed Cardiovascular/Telemetry Unit, atleast 10 of those beds are stepdown(CVS)On the regular tele we take MI's, Cardiac Cath, PTCA with stents unless they are on Reopro or Integrillin and a Femoral approach was used-then they go to CVS, Patients on external Pacemakers- like 3 deg AV Block patients, 24 hr post op CABG or Valve Replacement patients. On the regular Tele we take Dobutrex,Natrecor Cardizem, Lidocaine; Reopro and Integrillin pre Cardiac cath or post if Radial approach was used. In the CVS unit we take patients with A-Lines, 24 hr post Open Heart with Mediastinal Chest Tubes, post Carotid Endarterectomy, post op Vascular patients- Fempops, Lysis, Endovascular AAA Repair all go to CVS for the first 24 hours then they go out to the regular telemetry floor. In CVS we have hardwire Vital sign machines that are portable and can be wheeled from one room to the other. Also in CVS we take Dopamine, Nitroglycerine, Primacor and Amiodarone Drips. Amiodarone Drips can go on the regular telemetry floor if patient is stable. To work in CVS unit they usually like experienced Nurses back there who have been through a special training program to work back there. We will be doing Aquaphersis in CVS- we all been trained to do it but so far no doctor has ordered it. We haveone charge Nurse for the entire floor and she must be CVS trained. On day shift there are also 4 Patient Care Facilators. On the telemetry part of floor 7a-7p shift nurse get 5-6 patients with a nurses aide and 7p-7a nurses get 7 with a nurses aide. In the CVS unit we usually get 3 patients on each shift with a nurses aide
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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry/PCU, SNF.

Our unit sounds very similar to "AlexisRN46". But here goes:

We're a 46 bed cardiac/cardiac surgery unit. Our motto pretty much is: if they've got a heart they can come to us. That said we get pre/post PCI - with Reopro, Integrillin et. al., pull venous and arterial sheaths, pre/post op CABG/valve surgery - usually POD#1 18-24 hours out with chest tubes, external pacers, get the LOLs with A-Fib with RVR (and dementia), CHFers, sternal wound infections, complex post-surgical patients with a need for cardiac monitoring, geri-psych :bugeyes:, rule-out MIs, chest pain admits, pacers and AICD placements, post-EPS patients with/without ablation, dialysis patients, Tikosyn and Sotalol load patients, plus more than our fair share of medical overflow patients. We also run Amiodarone, Cardizem Lasix, Heparin, Nitro, Dopamine, Dobutamine, Integrillin, Reopro, Milrinone, Esmolol, Nisertitide and Natrecor drips, some of which are titratable by nursing based on parameters - nitro, heparin and cardizem.

We're in the process of splitting into 2 sub-units, a tele floor and a cardiac step-down unit. SDU will get the fresh hearts, the intervention patients, the sheaths etc. The tele floor will get everyone else. Days our staffing is 3-4:1 with aides for all 46 beds, very busy with admits and discharges - it's not unheard of for a nurse to discharge all their patients and get a whole new hand in one 12 hour shift. Nights we run 4:1, occ. 5:1 with 2 aides for the entire floor. They're telling us that the SDU will be 3:1 at all times.

We have unit specific teaching, like 12-leads, arrhythmia interpretation, use of the temporary external pacemakers, sheath pulling, and protocols. We're tested every year to make sure we current. Every nurse on the unit is ACLS certified, new grad have up to 6 months (for nights to get certified).

I think that sums it up...:smokin:

Cheers,

Tom

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Days our staffing is 3-4:1 with aides for all 46 beds, very busy with admits and discharges - it's not unheard of for a nurse to discharge all their patients and get a whole new hand in one 12 hour shift. Nights we run 4:1, occ. 5:1 with 2 aides for the entire floor. They're telling us that the SDU will be 3:1 at all times.

Tom, Your floor sounds just like ours except your staffing ratios sound much better!!! I'm Jealous. What state are you in? I havn't seen much Tikosyn lately-Thank God it always made me nervous. Are you doing Aquapheresis? They trained us all to do it, they bought the machines and so far no doctor has ordered it.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry/PCU, SNF.

No Aquapheresis, yet. I've got a funny feeling that after the slpit they may try to bring it on. NM wants to make CHF a core focus of the non-SDU portion. So we'll see. As for ratios, I think it was a combination of nurse advocacy and physician pressure, but am not sure. I can't imagine having more than 5 on nights, even with my own aide. That is one big difference I think (I could be totally wrong). Each aide has 23 beds to care for. For us it's pretty much primary nursing, we do near everything and sometimes many of us believe we should get the CNAs hourly rate as well.

I don't mind Tikosyn, but for some reason Sotalol kind of freaks me out...don't know why.

Cheers,

Tom

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They tried to bring the aquapheresis on our floor in the stepdown portion but the Doctors aren't going for it-why I don't know. We get 7 patients at night alot and the tech has 12-13. We only had 6 before we got new management. So it's pretty rough especally with all that goes on with a 24hr post open heart and to top that off most of our patients think they are in a fancy hotel, our hospital encourages that image.

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Thanks you two - I can't tell you how much your first hand info is helping me out!

Tam

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Specializes in Emergency.

I work on a 42 bed telemetry/med-surg unit. We primarily see pts with arrhythmias, CHF, COPDers, and angina issues. We have an ICU and a PCU at the hospital, so they get the more serious cases first (STEMI's, hypertensive crisis pts, etc, until they are stabilized. If we have empty beds available, we also take medical pts like GI bleeds, diabetics, etc. We also are the unit of choice for comfort care patients at the end of life. Our usual ratio is 1:5-7pts.It is run like any other unit, but some of our nurses are specially trained to care for cardiac intervention patients (i.e. Stents and MI's) from the cath lab.

Amy

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Specializes in Cardiothoracic Transplant Telemetry.
our unit sounds very similar to "alexisrn46". but here goes:

we're a 46 bed cardiac/cardiac surgery unit. our motto pretty much is: if they've got a heart they can come to us. that said we get pre/post pci - with reopro, integrillin et. al., pull venous and arterial sheaths, pre/post op cabg/valve surgery - usually pod#1 18-24 hours out with chest tubes, external pacers, get the lols with a-fib with rvr (and dementia), chfers, sternal wound infections, complex post-surgical patients with a need for cardiac monitoring, geri-psych :bugeyes:, rule-out mis, chest pain admits, pacers and aicd placements, post-eps patients with/without ablation, dialysis patients, tikosyn and sotalol load patients, plus more than our fair share of medical overflow patients. we also run amiodarone, cardizem lasix, heparin, nitro, dopamine, dobutamine, integrillin, reopro, milrinone, esmolol, nisertitide and natrecor drips, some of which are titratable by nursing based on parameters - nitro, heparin and cardizem.

we're in the process of splitting into 2 sub-units, a tele floor and a cardiac step-down unit. sdu will get the fresh hearts, the intervention patients, the sheaths etc. the tele floor will get everyone else. days our staffing is 3-4:1 with aides for all 46 beds, very busy with admits and discharges - it's not unheard of for a nurse to discharge all their patients and get a whole new hand in one 12 hour shift. nights we run 4:1, occ. 5:1 with 2 aides for the entire floor. they're telling us that the sdu will be 3:1 at all times.

we have unit specific teaching, like 12-leads, arrhythmia interpretation, use of the temporary external pacemakers, sheath pulling, and protocols. we're tested every year to make sure we current. every nurse on the unit is acls certified, new grad have up to 6 months (for nights to get certified).

i think that sums it up...:smokin:

cheers,

tom

i was thinking that all of this sounds really familiar.... then i looked at your screen name and realized that it sounded familiar because you were talking about my floor :lol2:

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