rjm09

I work on a CV post surgical unit and as a new nurse, I wanted to know if it was appropriate to do compressions on a post-op CABG as well. One of the older nurses who worked on the unit at the time also told me that if we were doing CPR, the patient was dead, so compress away! I have also heard that if you place a phone book (or something of the like) over the chest, it causes less damage. Not sure how it would effect the quality of compressions though...

I work on a universal bed telemetry/ CVICU floor. We often get pts back from cath lab with sheaths sutured into place. We remove sheaths when our ACTs are less than 175, hold manual pressure x20min, and apply a femostop only if we are still having problems with bleeding after that. Our pts diet is typically as tolerated after a cath, but we usually are pretty careful with letting them eat prior to sheath removal. It is NO fun when you have a pt vomiting while you are holding pressure on their groin site!