Published Mar 29, 2008
garnetbeauty82
53 Posts
Ok, so we are taking a cardiac test on monday. Our instructor gave us the "hint" that this would be a great test to put the heparin protical on. The problem is we really havent had any instruction on this protical. I have looked in our books, and our syllabus and I am just not understanding it! I looked all over the internet and am just not coming up with anything that explains the heparin protical....is there anyone out there that can explain it or know of a good website that explains it? Thank you soooooo much!
Tisha
jmgrn65, RN
1,344 Posts
Heparin Protocol is based on Frequent ptt's and adjusting accordingly. Usually ptt is drawn every 6 hours and then daily once therapeutic range. Coumdin is also used sometimes and once the INR is therapeutic the heparin gtt is stopped. Try the correct spelling and you should be able to find something on it.
Thanks, but yahoo corrects spelling errors lol and I still didnt find anything, I understood that but was just looking for something a little more in depth and how we as nurses would go about adhearing to the protocol..thanks
Daytonite, BSN, RN
1 Article; 14,604 Posts
The hospital that you do you clinicals in will have it. Heparin protocols are actually found in the policy and procedure manuals of either the nursing, pharmacy or laboratory departments of hospitals. You may or may not be able to find the policies online.
Thank you for your response, I will email my instructor to see what she is looking for on this specific test....thanks again
Basically it is a close monitoring of ptt's and adjusting heparin gtt accordingly, until in the therapeutic range.
loricatus
1,446 Posts
If you have a PDA, download Epocrates. There is a heparin dosing protocol in the program & the Rx part is fabulous [free].
Heparin for DVTs is usually a weight based calculation that may or may not have a bolus amount provided at the initiation of the drip.
For instance: weight 68.2 kilograms calculates at 5500 unit bolus dose (80 units/kg) and an initial infusion rate of 1200 units per hour (18 U/kg/h).
After the infusion is started, hospital protocol would guide when to draw the coags and what adjustment to make in the infusion rate based on the results.