....and they had Dynamaps in every room!! (a nurse has gotta dream!)

Nurses General Nursing

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Is it too much to ask? I mean seriously!! How much time have you WASTED running around your unit looking for a (working!) vitals signs machine each week. Does management not get it? Not to mention the infection issues dragging a machine from room to room using the same blood pressure cuffs etc.

Anyways... Not only do I think there should be a dedicated unit for each room, but (and I'm going out on a limb here folks..so get ready to catch me!) I think they should be built into the darn beds..or at least attachable to the beds (Can I get an Amen!)

I know. I know. I'm dreaming. It's too much to ask. Go ahead. Hit me with all the negativity and "reality" you care to. But a nurse has gotta have a dream!!

Specializes in Telemetry, EKG interpretation, ICU/CCU.

once in awhile i'll float to med-surg which has something called 'ever-on' BUILT INTO THE BED

with all vital signs relayed onto one main monitor, showing each bed and their corresponding vitals....streaming live!

also your spectra link gets paged when a vital sign is funky or the patient attempts to get out of bed. are you kidding me!>!>>!!>:eek:

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Specializes in Oncology.
once in awhile i'll float to med-surg which has something called 'ever-on' BUILT INTO THE BED

with all vital signs relayed onto one main monitor, showing each bed and their corresponding vitals....streaming live!

also your spectra link gets paged when a vital sign is funky or the patient attempts to get out of bed. are you kidding me!>!>>!!>:eek:

How is it different from a heart monitor? Does it just do vitals? Or heart monitoring also?

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Specializes in Telemetry, EKG interpretation, ICU/CCU.

well in this case, it's a med surg floor, so no one is on a cardiac monitor. what's being monitored on this 'ever on' is BP, HR, RR..on my tele floor all cardiac monitoring is wirelessly transmitted to one main monitor. then, of course, ICU monitors it all

now we just need to invent something that notifies us prior to a patient code-browning!

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Specializes in Oncology.
well in this case, it's a med surg floor, so no one is on a cardiac monitor. what's being monitored on this 'ever on' is BP, HR, RR..on my tele floor all cardiac monitoring is wirelessly transmitted to one main monitor. then, of course, ICU monitors it all

now we just need to invent something that notifies us prior to a patient code-browning!

Do the patients stay hooked up to it? How often does it do vitals? I'm assuming you get to set this. I've never heard of this technology, so I'm curious about it.

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Specializes in Telemetry, EKG interpretation, ICU/CCU.

yes, the patients stay hooked up to their BP cuff. the mattress senses HR and RR... from what i understand, med-surg is the only unit with this technology, which is still in clinical trials, but so far so good

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Specializes in Oncology.
yes, the patients stay hooked up to their BP cuff. the mattress senses HR and RR... from what i understand, med-surg is the only unit with this technology, which is still in clinical trials, but so far so good

Wow, that's way cool. Is the BP cuff wireless so the patient can get up and walk around? Of do they just take it off? This sounds amazing.

I'm still waiting for toilets that will sense output ;)

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Specializes in Family Practice, Mental Health.

I work in ICU. We use disposable b/p cuff's that stay with the patient, which are interchangeable from the cardiac monitors in ICU to the tele-mons (like a dynamap) that they use out on the floor in tele and med/surg. After all this time, I can still go to my happy place of having a fully automatic poke-the-button v/s access after having worked in nightmare med/surg conditions with 2 dynamaps shared with 5 other nurses for a bunch of fresh post-op patients.

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Specializes in Ortho-Med/Surg,Heme/Onc.

I work at VA hospital on tele/oncology unit, and we have Dynamaps in each room, each pt. gets a disposable b/p cuff on admission. Each bed also has a flat screen tv on a arm, and a ceiling lift.

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I'd settle for a working manual cuff in each room!

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am I the only one who doesn't care for automatic BP machines? At one place I worked, the nurses depended on them so much, even using the results for the heart rate. How can you tell the quality of the pulse if you never feel it? The machines don't tell you if the HR is irregular or difficult to feel.

And I've had my own BP taken with a dynamap and there's been a significant difference between that and having it done manually.

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

Enough IV poles with working wheels would be nice. We have a manual BP cuff at every bed and tons of thermometers but working wheeled IV poles are like gold dust where I work!

Pretty bad for a colorectal and hepato billary surgical ward!

Yeah I am a fan of the manual BP and palpating a pulse. My students hate me for it!

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Specializes in Oncology.
am I the only one who doesn't care for automatic BP machines? At one place I worked, the nurses depended on them so much, even using the results for the heart rate. How can you tell the quality of the pulse if you never feel it? The machines don't tell you if the HR is irregular or difficult to feel.

And I've had my own BP taken with a dynamap and there's been a significant difference between that and having it done manually.

I consider out dynamaps to be fairly accurate provided that the patient is flat, laying still, and has a properly fitted cuff on correctly. I take a manual BP if anything is unusual.

I feel pulses during my assessment for quality, but not quantity.

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