Consolidation on Peds CCCU

[justgowiththeflo]

Hi all,

I will be consolidating at a peds hospital's cardiac intensive care unit. I heard the patients are high acuity and very young. While I have some pediatric experience, I have never had a cardiac patient and don't know a lot about cardiac nursing or critical care in general. I am wondering what topics I should review, or if there are any books (pocket sized even better :)) or any tips that I should keep in mind for this placement? I am hoping to secure a job there after since they do have a really good training/orientation program for new nurses. Thanks!!!

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

thread moved for best response.

[ambiance]

I've been looking into this issue as well because I have recently been hired into a cardiac PICU. Although I am not an expert, my research has shown that a lot of individuals like the Manual of Pediatric Critical Care as well as the Critical Care Nursing Made Incredibly Easy. I hope this helps! :)

[umcRN, BSN, RN]

Check out this website for help with defects: Home Page | Congenital Heart Disease - Cove Point Foundation | Johns Hopkins Children's Hospital

Most patients will be less than a year old (many infants less than 1 month) with another surge in the toddler age, from there you will get a variety of ages all the way up to middle aged adults with congenital heart disease who cannot yet be managed in the adult world. These kiddos can be very sick and go from looking "ok" one minute (sitting up, watching tv, playing, happy) to coding the next and deploying to ecmo (one of my early codes in this unit went exactly that way). Nurses have to be very in tune to their patients and on top of small details and changes but it's also a lot of fun