Strippers in the ICU!

ZASHAGALKA, RN · Nov 22, 2005

DANG. Not the thread I thought it was gonna be.

I was gonna say it's like flowers, leave your wares at the nurses' station.

Sigh.

(We don't strip CTs. It's written in the Post Cab orders not to.)

~faith,

Timothy.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Nov 22, 2005

Thank God it's not the thread i thought it was going to be.

Our cardios prefer to be called before tube stripping is done.

hrtprncss · Nov 22, 2005

Nope no stripping the CT allowed on ours....Milking only.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Nov 22, 2005

i've seen hookers in the icu, but no strippers!

seriously, our post op orders still say strip -- but our management team says don't. i think they need to get the orders caught up with current practice. that said, i do occaisionally strip -- wouldn't admit it at work, though!

ruby

austin heart, BSN, RN · Nov 23, 2005

Milking but not stripping

pricklypear · Nov 23, 2005

We have one surgeon who usually says "keep those tubes stripped" If we have a policy one way or the other, I don't know about it. I haven't seen anyone have problems after stripping.

darienblythe79 · Nov 23, 2005

I know that we are not supposed to strip them, but when it comes down to having a pt tamponade waiting on a resident come down at 2 am to suction CT or stripping it to pull a clot down, well what do you think I am going to do. No, I don't make it a frequent practice, but I use sound judgement. Keep the patient safe, bottom line.

KBrown881 · Nov 23, 2005

I'm not sure if it is because we have incredible autonomy in my unit, but we do what we feel is prudent. We have a good amount of standing orders and policies to cover us, but nothing on stripping. That said-- if a fresh heart is juicy and becomes clotty, it would be doing harm to not strip your chest tubes.

Occasionally, a surgeon or intensivist will stop by and do a little stripping himself (scandalous, I know! :rotfl:)- they would rather you get the chunks out than end up sucking them out at the bedside an hour later when we have to crack the chest.

SEOBowhntr · Nov 24, 2005

Our Dr's don't mind one way or another. I strip mine, and have never had a bad outcome in my almost 10yrs. of doing it that way. I have actually saved a few patients from having additional chest tubes placed by "assisting" in evacuating pleural effusions. On many occasions I've found that right where the collection system attaches to the actual CT, there can be clots and bits of tissues accumulate. One such patient had approx. 1000cc effusion and was already consented for a CT insertion in the morning when another nurse and I squeezed out a clot that was about 8" in length. It required all 4 hands to move from the CT to the collection tubing, then it "SPLASHED" into the cannister. A short while later, we had approximately 850cc more of sanguinous drainage in the cannister. The patients Hgb. was actually up 1.5 gr from the day before, and he felt as if he was breathing easier. The repeat CXR showed the effusion was now minimal, and he actually rather than have an additional CT placed had that one removed the following morning. I believe to ensure your patient has the best outcome gentle stripping clots from the tubing is best.

renerian, BSN, RN · Nov 24, 2005

Darn it LOL the title made me think this was going to be funny thread......sorry I cannot contribute.......

renerian:rotfl:

Pete495 · Dec 12, 2005

We absolutely strip them, in fact the surgeons prefer it also. They don't want those chest tubes clotting off, cuz then they have to return to OR or else suction them otu. i've never seen a bad outcome either.

Our Dr's don't mind one way or another. I strip mine, and have never had a bad outcome in my almost 10yrs. of doing it that way. I have actually saved a few patients from having additional chest tubes placed by "assisting" in evacuating pleural effusions. On many occasions I've found that right where the collection system attaches to the actual CT, there can be clots and bits of tissues accumulate. One such patient had approx. 1000cc effusion and was already consented for a CT insertion in the morning when another nurse and I squeezed out a clot that was about 8" in length. It required all 4 hands to move from the CT to the collection tubing, then it "SPLASHED" into the cannister. A short while later, we had approximately 850cc more of sanguinous drainage in the cannister. The patients Hgb. was actually up 1.5 gr from the day before, and he felt as if he was breathing easier. The repeat CXR showed the effusion was now minimal, and he actually rather than have an additional CT placed had that one removed the following morning. I believe to ensure your patient has the best outcome gentle stripping clots from the tubing is best.