Just wondering... but apparently, there is a national trend for med/surg floors to have up to eight telemetry beds for pts with secondary cardiac issues - not the primary reason for their current hospital admission, but historical problems e.g., afib. Such pts are monitored, and their monitors are watched by the techs on tele and the med/surg charge nurse, completely bypassing the med/surg floor RN.
I think we have 8 tele beds on my unit as does the other med surg units in my hospital. We are tele certified after a hospital ekg/rhythm class and the majority of us are ACLS certified (which really helps). We do monitor and print our own strips but there are monitor techs overseeing the whole house from the cardiac unit.
just wondering... but apparently, there is a national trend for med/surg floors to have up to eight telemetry beds for pts with secondary cardiac issues - not the primary reason for their current hospital admission, but historical problems e.g., afib. such pts are monitored, and their monitors are watched by the techs on tele and the med/surg charge nurse, completely bypassing the med/surg floor rn.
has anyone come across this?
thanks!
hi lotte,
in the facilities that i have worked, the med/surg units were about 40-50 beds and the entire floor had telemetry capabilities. i see it as sort of comparable to any patient that is diabetic and in the hospital needs their blood sugar monitored; any patient with a cardiac history may need heart monitoring while they are in the hospital.
unless you are one of those nurses that has an almost photographic memory for rhythm strips, taking a telemetry or ekg class at your local hospital is always a very smart thing to do. regardless of how often someone works with any given skill, annual updates and competencies help keep us on our toes. you may see 15 out of 20 abnormal rhythms every single week but sure enough, the patient who comes in stable one minute and coding the next will have thrown that rare abnormal beat that you hardly ever see right before they turned sour! lol. (something about murphy's law i think)
icu or the telemetry techs are always fantastic resources for when you are not sure about a heart pattern and even then, always go physically assess and look at your patient.
It's a recurrent trend on my floor. Thankfully my hospital is offering a 3 month class on cardiac interventions. I think I'll feel more prepared to deal with these issues more skillfully.
Up2nogood RN, RN
860 Posts
I think we have 8 tele beds on my unit as does the other med surg units in my hospital. We are tele certified after a hospital ekg/rhythm class and the majority of us are ACLS certified (which really helps). We do monitor and print our own strips but there are monitor techs overseeing the whole house from the cardiac unit.