andi.w

A patient recently told me that she was scheduled for a stress test and an autopsy the following day.

Hello, all. I've been looking for a good resource that explains the different vent modes/settings. Does anyone have any favorites? Thanks!

I think that a lot of RNs have or will make a med error at some point, whether big or small. I've made med errors before; it feels TERRIBLE. And as terrible as it feels, at the same time, it feels so much better to fess up and get it off your chest....

Good resources! Thank you all! One thing that I think I may be confused about is CMV vs. SIMV. It's my understanding that in CMV, the ventilator gives a fixed number of breaths with a fixed Vt and ignores any spontaneous breaths from the patient. Wh...

Unfortunately, this sounds familiar to me. I have worked with a couple of physicians that have been ordered anger management classes for their behavior. In my experience, it didn't make a difference. Aside from the fact that no one should have to wor...

Try this: http://fastfactsforcriticalcare.com/ I bought this mini binder as a new grad and still use it as a reference. It's not only cardiac, but has several sections for neuro, drugs, respiratory, etc. I also bought the additional sections for IABP...

I'm so jealous of those of you with visitation restrictions! The other two ICUs in my hospital do not allow visitors between 6a-8a and 6p-8p. I work cardiovascular surgical ICU, and we have NO limitations on visitors. It nauseates me to see small chi...

I work in open heart recovery, and I have not heard of a crescent shaped midsternal incision. I do not work in a large hospital, but I have seen a few patients come through with a MVR via a thoracotomy approach. Maybe this is what she's referring to?...

I felt this way when I first started too. It seemed like the more critical patients always went to the nurses who had been there longer. Eventually when I had gained some seniority and started taking the more critical patients, I lacked confidence be...

Tricky. Is the BP low because of the afib or does the pt normally run low? I think it would definitely depend on how brave the doc was feeling. You could try giving a slow bolus of amio and then starting a gtt. If the pt was symptomatic maybe amio an...

I also started as a new grad on a tele unit. It took me several months to find a routine that made me most proficient. One thing that I did at first was make a Sort of "check sheet/graph." I listed my pt room numbers horizontally and then tasks s...

It's good that you have a mental plan for how to begin. I work both CVICU and tele, and my "routine" is different for each. Everyone has a routine that works best for them. It took me a while to figure out how I could be most efficient. I too do a qu...

Skillstat.com is another good site for practicing ECG rhythms. It also has ACLS practice and other helpful info.

If EMS picks up a STEMI or if a STEMI walks into the ER, we activate an AMI page, and a page is sent out to the interventional cardiologist, Cath lab team, and the CVICU unit. A nurse from CVICU does not respond to the ER, however. The ER staff are f...

We recently had a cardiac arrest patient that we placed in a hypothermic coma. After the 24hrs of cooling the patient, they began passively rewarming. The patient was very slow to rewarm, and after about 8hrs, the patient's temp had only increased by...

I'm having a hard time understanding exactly what the augmentation is. i have taken a couple of balloon pump classes and researched online, but I'm still having a difficult time understanding. Can someone explain this simply please?

Separating compatible drugs is a wonderful suggestion, and I always try to do this. You never know when you may need to run your IVF in quickly, and you don't want to risk bolusing several drips in the process!

We regularly use an endovascular cooling catheter, but it was in use on another patient at the time. We used cooling blankets instead, which do not have the ability to rewarm. Apparently rewarming by room air with regular old warm blankets is the "ol...

We recently had a cardiac arrest patient that we placed in a hypothermic coma. After the 24hrs of cooling the patient, they began passively rewarming. The patient was very slow to rewarm, and after about 8hrs, the patient's temp had only increased by...

We recently had a cardiac arrest patient that we placed in a hypothermic coma. After the 24hrs of cooling the patient, they began passively rewarming. The patient was very slow to rewarm, and after about 8hrs, the patient's temp had only increased by...

Thank you :) I was reading into it way too much.

We use IV amio after the pt goes into afib. We start a beta blocker POD 1 if the pt can tolerate it. Otherwise, we are not currently doing anything preventative.

On my unit we have always just completely paused the pacer, and it always makes me so nervous! I agree that it should be turned down gradually. I feel like it's a nursing judgement call, and if the physician wants to completely pause it, then he shou...

I work in open heart recovery. We had a post-op valve code one evening and the surgeon advised us to do compressions at a rate that kept the patient's systolic BP in the 70s per the arterial line. However, I don't quite remember the exact rationale f...