ICU/CTICU
Critical Care Services at Sacred Heart Hospital
Critical Care is made up of one 12 bed intensive care unit that is divided into six bed sections. One area cares for patients who have undergone open heart surgery and the other area cares for patients requiring intensive care services. The unit is staffed by all Registered Nurses along with ancillary staff such as unit secretaries and nursing assistants.
Patient population:
The types of patients typically seen in Critical Care include:
- Post Open Heart Surgery (bypass or valve surgery)
- Respiratory failure patients requiring mechanical ventilation
- Patients with heart rhythm disturbances that require intensive monitoring and the administration of special medications to maintain their heart rate
- Hemodynamically unstable patients as evidenced by abnormal heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory status, or neurologic status
- Patients requiring special medications that will be continuously titrated to maintain hemodynamic stability
- Patients in shock
Staffing Ratios:
In critical care, the ratio of nurses to patients is typically 1 RN to 2 patients. There are times where there might be 1 RN to 1 patient. This is decided by the acuity of the patient and is the decision of the RN taking care of the patient.
Delivery of Care:
Care is delivered using a primary nursing approach to patient care. Patients are monitored and assessed on a constant basis. Nurses document clinical findings as frequently as every 10-15 minutes depending on the acuity of the patient. A great deal of special equipment is used to assist in caring for the patients including ventilators, cardiac monitors, invasive lines to monitor pressures in the circulatory system, intravenous infusion pumps, etc. In addition to the special equipment, all of the nurses in critical care have completed special education beyond their basic nursing school education. The focus of this education is to learn how to care for the critically ill patient. Some of the nurses also hold the credential of CCRN which stands for Critical Care Registered Nurses which is a special designation sponsored by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses.
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