Do your nurses assume total care for ICU patients

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In your department do the nurses assume total care for ICU or ED/ICU boarders that come to the department for angio etc?

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Specializes in SICU.

At my hospital we stay with our patients. Even if it takes 8 hours and anastheisia is looking after the pt, getting vitals etc., you staywith your patient. Even if you have another patient in the ICU, you stay with your patient.

The only place we don't stay is the OR. We go down with them, make sure that they are secure on the OR table, give report off and leave. The pt will come back directly from the OR for us to resume care.

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Specializes in Advanced Practice, surgery.

As an ICU nurse I would never have handed over care of my patient unless it was to a ward on discharge or other ICU on transfer. We would escort to radiology and stay there untill the procedure was complete.

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Specializes in RETIRED Cath Lab/Cardiology/Radiology.

We don't.

The ICU nurses stay with their pt.

We do transport them post-procedure.

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

if the icu nurse can come great, if not it's up to the medical imaging nurse. in my case that only applies to ct and mri. in cath lab it's up to their nurses, the primary does not come down.

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In your department do the nurses assume total care for ICU or ED/ICU boarders that come to the department for angio etc?

What department?

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.
what department?

the op mentioned the patient was having an angio...;)

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the op mentioned the patient was having an angio...;)

in your department do the nurses assume total care for icu or ed/icu boarders that come to the department for angio etc?

...well, if the icu pt is in angio then the angio nurse has the ball and the icu nurse is on the team but, in my experience, if the pt is paroxysmally incontinent or pukes or tries to die, the angio nurse backs away...

:clown:

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Specializes in RETIRED Cath Lab/Cardiology/Radiology.

Thank you for your observation, ecnav.

However, I feel it is unfair of you to assign such disregard for duty to all angio nurses.

In our facility (and in others where I've worked), if the pt is in the care of the angio nurses (us ;)) we take care of whatever: restarting infiltrated IVs, changing empty IV bags, puking pts, toileting needs, codes . . . .

It's unfortunate/unprofessional for ANY nurse to ignore pt needs.

And now, back to your regularly-scheduled program. :)

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

It's unfortunate/unprofessional for ANY nurse to ignore pt needs.

And now, back to your regularly-scheduled program. :)

:yeahthat:

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We assume total care of CCU/ICU patients when they come to Interventional Radiology only, including transporting the patient from the unit down to our area.

If the patient is coming down to CT, NM or MRI the Primary RN is expected to accompany the patients while in our department.

My nurses and I do whatever is typically required of a nurse, titrate drips as necessary, personal care needs, address immediate medical needs and administer conscious sedation. Most often we return the patients in much better shape than we received them, they are cleaned up as needed, the beds are changed as this is easier to do and the correct thing to do after a invasive procedure and all the lines and monitoring equipment are detangled. Which is most often not the case when we go get the patients regardless that we have called to inform them that we were on our way to tranport patient.

While Radiology/Imaging RN's often get little support and their practice is scrutinized by their peers, often they give the staff or primary RN "leaway" (sp?) or attempt to understand that we do not know what has been going on during her shift that might have understandably delayed routine care/caused the patient's current situation.

Nursing also needs to remember that not all procedure room/imaging room have all the same resources that are required to care for everyday needs of an CCU patient, because it would be cost and space prohibitive, especially if you are only expecting the patient in the department of a diagnostic exam.

Radiology/Imaging RN's through their committment to persevere, their level of expertise and flexibility to deal with all age groups and manage a continually flexing environment is a testiment of the skill level, which is way to often overlooked in Hosptials accross the country.

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Specializes in ICU, CVICU, Tele, Interventional Radiolo.

When ICU patients come down to the Angio room some ICU RN's stay and some do not. As the Radiology Nurse I usually decide if I need assistance from the ICU nurse depending on the patient. For example, if the patient is not stable, on multiple pressors and is receiving multiple blood products I would want the ICU RN to stay. We only have one RN to a case in our Angio room. Also, some ICU RN's feel comfortable leaving their patients with an IR Nurse. Usually IR nurses have ER or ICU experience and are familiar with titrating drips, pts on vents, and ACLS certified. As long as there is a qualified RN to committed to assume care of the patient during the procedure then I don't think it is necessary for the ICU RN to stay. However, if they want to stay I have absolutely no problem with that.:nurse:

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