Rapid Response Team & ICU

Specialties MICU

Published

I am currently a RRT RN based in our intensive care unit. We have a dedicated RRT RN 6 days/week, and the charge nurse is the RRT RN at night. When not on a call, we function in the ICU helping with procedures, breaking for lunches, admitting patients, mentoring novice ICU RN's, assisting with the most critical patients, etc. We also follow up on patients who have need RRT services but not transfer to critical care. Does anyone have experience with RRT teams not based in critical care, as well as the composition of those teams? There is currently a proposal to remove our RRT from the ICU, and staffing us out of our float pool. I am looking for any info or opinions on RRT that are not based in critical care. I know my concerns, but so far, administration has not seen fit to speak to us about it. Thanks for any help!

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Our hospital's RRT is 2-3 ICU-trained RN's who do nothing but RRT. No ICU coverage at all. They bring people up from the GPU's and give a bit more detailed report about their condition than the GPU RN's do. They will also follow up with visits to patients on the GPU's that didn't result in an ICU transfer. They are there 24/7.

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RRTs here in BC, consist of ICU docs,ICU nurses and RTs. They respond to Code blues and pre-codes(ICU consults). If this is the case for your hospital, why would you want a member of this team to have no critical care traing? doesn't make sense.

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RRTs here in BC, consist of ICU docs,ICU nurses and RTs. They respond to Code blues and pre-codes(ICU consults). If this is the case for your hospital, why would you want a member of this team to have no critical care traing? doesn't make sense.

The OP seems to be looking for more valid uses of a RRT. Using the term 'based' as working exclusively in ICU, not no knowledge base of critical care.

The code blue teams/rrts do seem to function on all of the units that I've seen (but I thought they were all MDs). I believe if a nurse or family questions treatment or opinions about change in status - that the team gives consults too.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ER.

I am also an RRT nurse. In our hospital we have an adjoining office with the house supervisors & are all cross trained for house supervisor as well. We are all ICU RN's but as the basis of rapid response is to bring the ICU to the patient we spend most of our time on the floors rather than in the ICU's.

We round to the floors several times throughout the shift, answer questions & help with procedures (we assist with all line placements on the floors), help with difficult IV starts, help with taking transfer calls if the house supervisor is backed up, etc. We also provide back up in the ICU's and ER if they are busy also. A good share of our pages are simply resource calls from nurses both on the floor & in the ICU's asking our advice or for help with something they are not familiar with.

We also assist with chart reviews, ventilator bundle audits, and quailty review of all falls. Basically, we wear a lot of hats & it works great for our hospital. There is always a dedicated RRT nurse 24/7 who never takes a patient assignment.

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Our RRT is not connected to our ICU at all. It consists of 1 RN, 1RT, house supervisor, and family practice residents come for "learning experience." We only require 2 years of nursing experience to be on RRT, and recommendation from our director. We have coverage 24/7. An RRT nurse can be an ER, ICU, OR, med/surg nurse, etc. They carry a pager and respond to RRT when paged. Most RRT nurses work the floor and have their own patients. I don't really like it, sometimes you are too busy with your own patients then have to leave for RRT and sometimes can be tied up for a very long time.

It might be worth it to say that our hospital is a level 3 trauma, no heart surgeries. 12 bed ICU, 6 bed progressive unit, then 4 med/surg untits that hold about 30-35 patients each.

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CRRT,.

Our RRT is shared between all units. Basically each unit, CCU, MICU, SICU and CVSU take turns..rotating on a weekly basis. Each week the pager is transfered to the next unit. When a rapid response call comes in, any nurse from the assigned unit that is ACLS certified can respond, although it is usually a more experienced nurse, and if possible the charge nurse. the nurse that goes asseses the situation and calls in the RT or doc if necessary and arranges transfer if needed. I dont really like it because i feel it puts too much responsibility on one nurse, sometimes a nurse that isnt as competant to make those decisions. for instance, i will take ACLS in march, and i have been in the unit for more than 6 months, so as soon as i am certified i can and likely will have to run calls, and i dont know that i am ready to take on that responsibility

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