Outline

It is the first day of essential assessment, intervention and exploration strategies.

Critically ill patients are everywhere these days, from the Med-Surg floor to the intensive care unit. It’s important to have a good working knowledge of the concepts for managing high-acuity patients.

You must know the latest critical care skills if you want to be successful.

• Rapid Assessment
• ABG Analysis
• Central Line Care
• Easy Strip Interpretation

OUTLINE

The identification and management of crisis.

• Master “down and dirty” prompt assessment skills
• End the “Red Flags”
• Rapid stabilizing interventions for the unstable patient
• Manage the decompensating patient
• Better outcomes through quick intervention

There are easy steps to abg analysis.

• Acid base imbalance
• 4 abnormal findings when reading your lab result
• A simple tool to rapidly and efficiently interpret ABG’s!

There are 5 steps to interpreting a rhythm strip.

• Systematically reviewing the major components of a rhythm strips
• Identifying rhythm changes and management of:
• Atrial Fibrillation and Atrial Flutter
• Paroxysmal Supra-Ventricular Tachycardia (PSVT)
• V-Tach and V-Fib

Managing Chest Drainage.

• Indications for chest tubes
• Circumventing re-expansion pulmonary edema
• Avoiding common complications of chest drainage

The Master Central Line Care.

• Common issues experienced with central lines
• Using which port for what on a triple lumen PICC
• Use of a “cell-saver” to reduce lost hemoglobin during blood draws
• The challenge of CVP monitoring

The pacemakers and the AICDs.

• Indications for pacemakers
• Meaning of pacemaker codes
• Types of Pacemakers
• Device management
• Practical solutions to common pacemaker problems

The intensive care unit has end-of-life care.

• The needs of the patient
• Practical tips to help your patients and families with the end-of-life journey

OBJECTIVES

1. Identify 5 essentials components of a “down and dirty” assessment in your patient when they have a sudden decomposition in health status.
2. State 3 rapid interventions that can stabilize a patient who is symptomatic with a low blood pressure.
3. Recognize the most common causes of arterial blood gas abnormalities.
4. Quickly identify the 3 most common dysrhythmias using rhythm strip interpretation.
5. Manage the risk to avoid re-expansion pulmonary edema in the patient with a chest tube for pleural effusion.
6. Review the correct technique for opening an occluded central line lumen.
7. Summarize the difference between failure to capture and failure to sense in a pacemaker and how each is resolved.
8. Recognize the three biggest concerns patients recognize at end of life.

The second day deals with advanced management of chronic and ill patients.

The Advanced Management of Complex and Critically Ill Patients seminar will give you a strong foundation, while integrating tips, timesavers, and stories about real nurses who make a difference in their patient’s lives. The seminar will teach you how to be an expert in critical care. Advanced critical care concepts and interventions can be learned.

• Advanced cardiac care/hemodynamics
• Advanced neurological care
• Mechanical ventilation management

OUTLINE

Understand hemodynamics today.

• Cardiac Output = Heart Rate x Stroke Volume
  • Use a simple analogy to learn the components and finally get it
• Preload, Afterload and Contractility
• Manipulating the mathematical equation to stabilize

The trio is in crisis.

• IV Fluids – picking the right one for the situation
• 5 pressor agents – How they work when to use them
  • Blood products! FFP, Platelets, PRBC’s and Cryoprecipitate

Understand Hemodynamic Waveforms and Measure them correctly.

• Assessment clues to hemodynamic instability
• Central Venous Pressures
• Arterial Lines
• Swan Ganz Catheters

There is mechanical Ventilation for nurses.

• How to manage patients on ventilators
• Avoiding Ventilator Acquired Pneumonia (VAP)
• Using CPAP or BiPAP

Take care of shock.

• Assessment and management of:
  • Cardiogenic Shock
  • Septic Shock
  • Hypovolemic Shock

The patient with the neurological condition should be managed.

• Use a “5-point Neuro Check” to easily identify changes in condition
• Stroke and Stabilization
  • Ischemic
  • Hemorrhagic
• Delirium
• How to assess & intervene

Clues from the 12-Lead are life-threatening EKG changes.

• Spectrum of coronary artery ischemia
• 5-step method for finding myocardial ischemia and injury
• STEMI and NSTEMI – What’s the difference?
• Location, location, location!