IV Amiodarone

[willie2001]

:) In what setting in your facilities do you administer Amiodarone? Does the patient have to be in ICU? I would like to know. Thanks in advance for your input.

[PhantomRN]

We only admin amiodarone in the unit.

[CC NRSE]

Hi Willie!!

At my hospital, it can be initiated on the cardiac floor but must be tranfered to the unit to be monitored. The pts can transfer out to the floor but only after being at the perscribed rate without adjustment for 24hrs. They usually have already been started on p.o. by the time they transfer back to the floor. We rarely send these gtts out.

(As you probable know, there is not titration for this gtt but recomendations on what rate ie 1mcg/min for the first 6- 12hrs then reduce to .5mcg/min for so many hrs until 2 dose of p.o. is started.)

Hope this helps!!

[ May 07, 2001: Message edited by: CC NRSE ]

[egmillard]

I work in Telemetry and we use IV Amiodarone gtt. I would imagine that if the patient was unstable then we would transfer to the CCU. :) :)

[Smitty,RN]

I work on PCU- in a relatively small hospital- We also have Amiodarone drips- Our patient load is 7-1, we take VS q2h for cardiac drip patients. We also take "stable" Tridil drips-

[Ellen in Ont]

In our hospital any potent drips have to be administered in the ICU. However, we don't have any other unit (telemetry or cardiac) to put them besides out to the regular Medical floor when stable. :)

[CardiacRN]

Amiodarine gtts are used on all cardiac units/floors in my institution.