Recommended books for cardiothoracic surgery?

Argo · Feb 20, 2011

Do a couple of cases with another RN circulating it. Stand at the head of the bed with the surgeon and watch What he is doing during the case. Alot of them will talk while they do it and teach you.

Get the surgeons preference cards and look up their cardioplegia preference as well as other drug preference. Wikipedia actually has good articles too. You can Google any procedure and find the surgical process for it. I do this any time I'm doing a case for the first time. If you know How to scrub then hop up in there and retract or assist rather than pass instruments so you can see it directly.

suanna · Feb 20, 2011

"the ICU Book" by Dr. Paul L. Marino is a very good resource for any critical care area but it is a bit $$$. See if the hospital you are working in has it in the library or if you can get it used on Ebay or Amazon. "Patient Care in Cardiac Surgery" by Douglas M. Behrendt M.D. and W. Gerald Austen M.D. is a less expensive resource although some of the material in the 4th edition may be getting a bit outdated- it is still very "on target" for most routine post-op cardiac surgery patients. Please remember- cardiovascular surgeons are very particular as a rule in how they want thier patients managed. The preferance of norepinepherine over epinepherine or dopamine as a pressor agent is many times not which agent is more appropriate for the patients condition but what surgeon is on call and who is the attending. Learning the ins and outs of any specific program is going to be as big a challange as learning the general management skills. I've worked this field for 25+ years and still find stuff I didn't know I didn't know every day.