Temperature of 91 for a Medsurg floor?

[mikeworksRN]

Hi all. I had to place a patient from the ER with a low blood sugar, hypothermic with a temperature of 91 to a medsurg tele floor. I gave the nurse a Bair Hugger, however, the nurse didn't want to take the patient, felt the temperature was too low, so he went to a different unit with the same nurse-patient ratio. Patient was alert, was it wrong to try to place that on a MS-Tele floor?

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Depends. But most people with an accurately-determined core temp of 91 deg F should be rewarmed slowly with monitoring, preferably in a ICU.

[blondy2061h, MSN, RN]

Bair huggers can only be used in critical care areas at my hospital, due to the reasons Grntea mentioned and they usually have accurate, continuous temperature monitoring via PA cath or foley probe.

[MN-Nurse, ASN, RN]

Patient was alert, was it wrong to try to place that on a MS-Tele floor?

Extremely.

[6spdftwtm]

Agreed. As a 6 yr ER nurse, I wouldn't even consider taking a patient to a MS or tele floor with a core temp of 91ºF. Whether I had the order and accepting floor ready or not. Just isn't safe. A now, common-place practice of giving the floor nurses 8 patients every night is ridiculous even with stable sub-acute patients (which we know is a rarity).

Late,

Trav

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

If the patient was alert I'd be more likely to try a temp in another site, or a different thermometer. His temp did not match his LOC. If he really was 91F the gets to hang until it comes up, and stays on a cardiac monitor while he waits.