Telemetry nursing

Telemetry is included with cardiac nursing.

Telemetry nursing involves providing care to patients by connecting them to machines that measure heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, blood-oxygen level, and .... its critical care nursing....

Ummm...I'm on a "low level" tele floor. Pts are on heart monitors and we have protocols we can use for CP. We also have protocols for K and Mag replacement. However, we do not have certain drips, do not titrate meds, etc.

It is certainly NOT critical care....(Especially with a 6-7:1 ratio.)

We do titrate some meds, but our ratios can be as high as 6:1 as well -- it is intermediate care, but we are not critical care, either.

I also work telemetry and have never heard it referred to as critical care. My unit certainly isn't, nor are the telemetry units at the other local hospitals.

Question: Is Telemetry sort of like a Step-Down unit for cardiac patients? I'm still trying to define and see where it fits in the big picture of nursing.

I suppose it depends on the facility as to what role a telemetry floor fills. In some hospitals it may function as a step down unit for the ICU or in a really small hospital even be the upper level of care. My facility has a step down unit and while the two floors often have similar patients, telemetry tends to be more stable in general and never gets open heart (pre or post op). We do take the heart cath and pacer patients (pre and post op), MIs and general cardiac patients coming in with chest pain, CHF, atrial fib, etc. We also get a significant number of renal patients and sometimes med-surg overflow as well.

Telemetry can be floor level nursing. The last two hospitals I've worked at had telemetry monitoring on step-down units and regular med/surg floors. Not all med/surg patients were on monitors, just the ones with known or potential heart problems.