RNintherain

Critlines work on the same principle as a sat monitor..you initialize it and clip a light sensor onto an add in on the blood line above the kidney and it reads out the current hct, then you set the goal for (usually) 5% above that reading. You then get a linear readout and watch your line..if it's too steep you back off on your target on the dialysis machine, too flat you increase your target. Nice tool for pts who crash during tx, or those who come in with high wt gains. We have a few pts we can't weigh for various reasons so the crit line is our only means of achieving a decent tx..works pretty well too. Our techs are also trained to use them which helps alot.

I use critlines whenever my pts dry wt is in question, or if they suddenly start crashing at the end of tx. Holiday time is a good time to use them since pts, like the rest of us, tend to put on wt. Some of our docs call us /c dw for pts and are totally unrealistic so the critline becomes our proof of pt dw. We can't help it if they go to the Country Buffet and gorge themselves...I tell them I may be able to get the fluid off but can't get the roast beef and mashed potatoes. (horrors! the pia is eating potatoes again!!) I hope you got an inservice on using the critline, I started doing dialysis /p almost 20 yrs of hospital work and no one inserviced me on it. I finally had to drag someone over to teach me how to use the dang thing, now I love it.

LMAO, thisnurse, I used to ask the doc's if they couldn't write a prn order for pillow therapy for the pia's. (Don't need an order for the families, just privacy.) I was giggling so hard as I read your post that my daughter came in to find out what I was reading. And as for the Dear Abby letter, I was disgusted. How many times have we had passed on in report that 'the family is looking for a lawsuit', and yet we're supposed to go into the room like nothing is wrong. How would those ppl like to go to work and have everything they say and do written down to be reported to their superiors? And how can they think that the added stress will improve our level of care? I say, pillow therapy all around!! (Including Dear Abby for encouraging this behavior.)