Transplant PICUs

[kabarnes]

Hi, I was wondering about any of you who work in units that do transplants. I have a background in Peds Heme Onc and Adult ICU/CCU and I think that I might be interested in working in a unit that does transplants. Questions: Is there any special training or articles I could read to find out more information about the specialty? Do most hospitals have specific transplant ICUs or are the patients mixed with other surgical patients? Where are some of these hospitals located? My husband is in the military so we move around alot and I would like to know where some of the jobs are.

[*PICURN*]

I work in a transplant PICU in Los Angeles. Our hospital has like 10 ICU's (one for liver transplants, heart/lung transplants, kidney transplants, etc) where there is a separate medical ICU and separate surgical ICU. The PICU however is a mix of all transplants/surgical procedures, however I would say most of the patients are either waiting for a transplant, or have recently gotten one. PM me if you have any ?'s.

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

Our unit handles about 20 transplant patients a year, a small number compared to some of the bigger US facilities. We have done what seems to me like a lot of them lately, six in the last three months. We usually have more hearts than anything else, but lately it's been livers. My last four shifts have been divided between two different liver recipients. We have standard post-op orders for each organ that the physician fills out prior to the child going to OR. There are several good references on transplant surgery and follow-up, and it helps to predict what to expect with these kids if you know what exactly they do in OR. It's also important to understand how the immunosuppressant drugs work and side effects you're likely to see, as well as signs and symptoms of rejection for each organ your center transplants. You can Google any of the related terms and have hundreds of hits returned. You can find out locations of regional transplant centers by going to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network website's search feature and typing in the state you're interested in:

http://www.optn.org/members/search.asp

Hope this helps.

Jan