Looking To Create An LVAD Information Sheet

[zimmersdreamer]

Hi, I am a cardiac nurse in a hospital that cares for LVADs. We get a TON of transfers from other hospitals (as well as direct admits) where the ER nurses know NOTHING about them. Sadly even our own ER nurses are clueless about them. I would like to create a cheat sheet or basic informational sheet (unless there is one already out there which I can not find yet) are there any other VAD trained nurses, or VAD coordinators that would like to help?

Topics it will include

Basic info on Heart Mate (2 &3, as there is only one living heartmate 1 patient in our system) as well as Heartware

basic trouble shooting

basic "do you have" for patients transporting far away from home

what type of information is pertinent to this patient?

understanding the basic of LVAD vitals.

CPR? or basic life support- our hospital is starting a specialized class on LVAD compressions, but its not protocol everywhere

what information you need to convey to the staff nurse on transport

what other resources are valuable to the ER nurses?

I will be working with our VAD coordinators to see if there is something out there like this and if not seeing about getting this info out. ER nurses have to know a little about EVERYTHING I feel like and too many times cardiac nurses are frustrated when we don't get the info we need for that patient, sadly I have heard too many co-workers talk poorly of the transferring nurse who is clueless of our specialty. (that is another issue that has been addressed in house)

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Thanks for identifying this patient need ---would be even helpful for home health nurses caring for patient post discharge.

2017 CEU article:

Nursing care for the patient with a left ventricular assist device

[Luckyyou, BSN, RN]

How about where they can find extra VAD supplies? Our patients always seem to present to the ER without their charger, extra batteries, etc...

[zimmersdreamer]

1) I have found plenty of information on the VADs. I found some informational docs sent out to paramedics that I found useful. However I'm looking to make a poster style informational for ER nurses so they know the basics of how to assess the VAD patient. As well as parameters to look out for.

2) our hospital has extra supplies, most do but because of the expense they are kept in the cardiac unit.

[zimmersdreamer]

Patients are assigned a VAD coordinator & generally have VAD trained nurses if they have home health care. We cannot even discharge to a skilled facility without certified nurses there.

Recently we d/ced 2 VAD patients, 1 to a skilled facility that we sent their nurses through a 6 week course. & the other was a hospice nurse we trained before the patient was d/ced