Vasoactive drips

EuropaRN · Jul 4, 2015

I believe Tele floors at my hospital (360ish beds) can take cardiac drips but cannot titrate. I'm not sure if that applies to nitro or not.

Curious though, if you are moving from the area, are you planning on working in the new area? Maybe this would be an opportunity to be exposed to some vasoactive drips and you could use that experience wherever you are moving to.

The best of luck either way!

MendedHeart · Jul 4, 2015

I work on Cardiac stepdown and we take drips and titrate them as well. Our ratio is still 4 :1

Momma1RN, MSN, RN, APRN · Jul 4, 2015

I believe Tele floors at my hospital (360ish beds) can take cardiac drips but cannot titrate. I'm not sure if that applies to nitro or not.
Curious though, if you are moving from the area, are you planning on working in the new area? Maybe this would be an opportunity to be exposed to some vasoactive drips and you could use that experience wherever you are moving to.
The best of luck either way!

Thanks! I do plan on working at our next place that we live and will hopefully move onto critical care or at least a step down. I considered making the move to this other hospital to gain some experience but I would have to give my notice like 3-4 months after getting off orientation and I don't feel like that's a good thing to do.

dream'n, BSN, RN · Jul 4, 2015

All the Telemetry floors I've seen do cardiac drips

Clovery · Jul 4, 2015

One of my family members was in a medium-sized community hospital (admitted from ER with SVT). She was in the ICU on a cardizem drip and once the drip was d/c'd they transferred her to the tele unit. I have worked on a tele floor in an LTAC and vasoactive drips were also limited to the ICU.

Lev, MSN, RN, NP · Jul 5, 2015

I work in the ED. We send patient on drips to the tele floor but only a handful are allowed. No titratable drips are allowed out of ICU or our Stepdown unit. The IMC and Telemetry units do not titrate. Tele will take cardizem, nitroglycerin, and heparin. I think they can take "renal dosed" dopamine drips too. Again no titration. Insulin drips go to IMC and higher because they require frequent blood sugar checks.

I don't think lack of experience with drips should stop you from taking a telemetry position at this hospital. You will be trained to work with them. I went from M/S to the ED and learning drips was doable. Just make sure to know your meds and seek out a more experiened nurse. Before giving an unfamiliar IV med I will ask another nurse "what do I have to know about this med before giving it. (I've never given it IV)." And I will go look it up in Micromedex.

canigraduate · Jul 5, 2015

Most tele floors I've worked on have had drips. At least the basics, like cardizem and metoprolol. Depending on the hospital, each unit had a few different drips, like one would do amiodarone and one wouldn't. Although, I think the amiodarone was because I'd had ICU experience.

Like the other posters have said, they weren't titrated.

Anyway, in your shoes, I would take the job at the bigger hospital and get the extra experience to make myself more marketable for the move. All that extra orientation and education is an awesome opportunity that I wouldn't pass up.

My position is an unpopular one, but job hoppers tend to get more varied experiences and a pay raise every time they change jobs.

blackribbon · Jul 5, 2015

I work at a small community hospital on their "telemetry" floor, but we do no drips at all. Anyone requiring a drip goes to our ICU. Yesterday, I interviewed for a per diem position at a bigger hospital on their telemetry floor, but unfortunately I am too inexperienced because I've never had experience with drips. We are moving from this area in a year so unfortunately I'm not considering making the move to this bigger hospital even though there are positions available and the manager seemed willing to take me on and orient me in a full time capacity (4 month orientation). So I guess my question is - is it normal for a telemetry floor to not have drips? Or to have them? I'm sure it's because I'm at a small community hospital without a large cardiac program. Just curious what other peoples' experiences have been. Thanks!

If they are willing to train you, why wouldn't you take the opportunity to learn? How set in stone is your move and your move date? and what kind of time commitment do they consider fair in accepting a position that requires training? I know as a new nurse, I have been asked for a one year commitment to both places that hired me (the first job couldn't give me enough hours but I still am contingent and help out several days a month).

Momma1RN, MSN, RN, APRN · Jul 6, 2015

If they are willing to train you, why wouldn't you take the opportunity to learn? How set in stone is your move and your move date? and what kind of time commitment do they consider fair in accepting a position that requires training? I know as a new nurse, I have been asked for a one year commitment to both places that hired me (the first job couldn't give me enough hours but I still am contingent and help out several days a month).

My husband is military so although there is a chance we could stay longer, we are most likely going to be leaving next June/july. I really would like the experience. From a managers perspective, though, training someone for 4 months for them to leave 7 months later kind of sucks, doesn't it? I mean I guess it happens and I should probably look out for my own best interests for my career, I'm just not wanting a potentially terrible reference when I leave here.

Beverage · Jul 8, 2015

I work Cardiac Tele, we titrate diltiazem, dopamine and dobutamine. We manage amiodarone, loading, 6 hour and maintenance dosing. We also titrate heparin gtts. We don't take Nitro or insulin gtts because it's too labor intensive with 4 and sometimes 5 Patients when we're short staffed.

MendedHeart · Jul 8, 2015

We take and titrate Nitro, Nipride, Insulin, Dopa, Dobut, Neo, Primacor, heparin, Integrillin,Amio, Dilt.........

We also take Art lines with a 3:1 ratio