Pediatric Transport Team

vamedic4, EMT-P · Aug 16, 2006

I work in a level one 10 bed PICU. Two years ago administration decided that cutting the budget needed to be done and our PICU transport team seen the knife. Now we have very little patients and most of these really do not meet ICU criteria. We are hoping to bring the team back this year; however, we are running into problems. First, none of the old team members work at this hospital now. Second, almost all of our ICU nurses and staff are new to the hospital or ICU environment. I was just wondering how other transport teams are configured. Are the nurses of transport in the ICU staffing, do they take patients, what other roles do they play within the hospital? Please help...

Here in Dallas the transport team is made up of RN/RT and either and EMT or paramedic, depending on what is needed and whether they're flying or driving. We have ground, rotor and fixed wing capability at this Level I facility. The transport team is stationed at an airport for quick dispatch, so they do not take patients in the traditional sense. The only time we see them is when they're dropping patients off to the floor.

They all have previous CEN/CCRN certs and are very experienced.

Just some insight

vamedic4

Pediatric Critical Care Columnist · Aug 16, 2006

Our transport team is based in our unit. We have some teams of RN/RT who are qualified to go out physicianless to retrieve kids, no matter how critical. There are also more junior teams that go out with a physician in tow. We have ground, fixed wing and rotor capability and some of our transports are to very remote locations where the round trip might take 16 hours and involve outdoor temperature shifts of 30 degrees Celsius. Our first-call-to-on-the-way timeline is 30 minutes or less. The transport nurse is expected to help with breaks and any tasks that require more than one nurse whenever possible. They are also the second responder to codes within the hospital and they are often called to put in IVs on little ones no one else even wants to look at. Only under the dire-est of circumstances do they take a patient. The transport RT is also included in the routine running of the unit but with no set-in-stone responsibilities.

Pedi-ER-RN, RN · Aug 17, 2006

Our transport team is ground only, anything in need of being flown in is flown in by the helicopter services(occassionally, they do take members of our team to retrieve very sick ones). The team consists of an RN and an RT, physicians do not ride anymore unless it is warranted. The RN is either a PICU or ER nurse. We are in staffing and have to report our patients off to someone and leave within 30 min of the call. If staffing is short, someone is on call and they have to respond within 30 min and they either go on transport or take the pt from the RN who is going on the transport. Our director has numerous protocols for different disease processes.