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Hi everyone. I'm a new grad starting in a cardiovascular step down unit and I want to succeed! Please tell me what skills, meds, etc you use often, as well as any books or general topics that I can read up on to get me off to a great start. Thank you!

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Hi everyone. I'm a new grad starting in a cardiovascular step down unit and I want to succeed! Please tell me what skills, meds, etc you use often, as well as any books or general topics that I can read up on to get me off to a great start. Thank you!

This ought to get you started:

cardiovascular textbook list - Google Search

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I was looking more for specific examples that have helped others but thank you for your reply!

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Specializes in CICU, Telemetry.

This depends a lot on your specific unit, what types of patients you get, what types of drips are allowed in stepdown in your hospital, what types of lines will your patients have ? Will you have cardiac surgery patients or just medical cardiology patients? LVADs?

For drips I'd say probably Heparin, Nitro, Diltiazem, Amiodarone, Lasix, Milrinone, Cleviprex, Nipride, Esmolol, Lidocaine

I'd brush up on CHF exacerbations, NSTEMIs, postop heart surgery, pacemakers, management of afib (e.g. cardioversion, ablation, meds, anticoagulation), and any devices (e.g. transvenous pacers, LVADs) that you will be responsible for.

Again, we'd need more information about the patient population and what you struggle with to recommend more specific books/procedures/meds to study up on

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