Critical Care Flashcards
Concepts
☆ Gas exchange
☆ Perfusion
☆ Clotting
Conditions characterized by (any or all):
- Profound alteration of homeostasis
- Serious instability of vital functions
- Threat to life
Examples of critical illness
- GSWs
- Traumatic injuries
- Shock
- Surgery
- Cardiovascular
- Cancer
Nurse’s Role
✯ Patient assessment
✯ Monitor ventilator
✯ Prevent complications
✯ Manage complications
Critical care includes:
- Hemodynamic monitoring
- Mechanical ventilation
- Critical illnesses
- Assessment
Critical Care
✪ The nurse must continuously assess a critically ill patient
✪ Pts will be monitored & may be intubated
Some problems that can occur also are:
- Infection
- Nutrition
- Anxiety
- Sleeping
- Immobility
- Complications
- Communication
- Family
Sensory overload ☞ ICU psychosis
! Is a temporary cond that can be treated; is no diff b/t ICU psychosis & delirium
! An incr prevalent problem & may occur @ any time during recovery from an acute illness or traumatic event; can be dangerous
! May last 24 hrs or even up to 2 wks w/various sx’s occurring @ diff times
What is ICU psychosis?
A disorder in which pts in an ICU or a similar setting experience a cluster of serious psychiatric sx’s; aka ICU synd; is also a form of delirium, or acute brain failure
What causes ICU psychosis?
Environmental Causes
☞ Sensory deprivation
- A pt being put in a room that often has no windows, & is away from family, friends, & all that is familiar & comforting
☞ Sleep dist & deprivation
- The constant dist & noise w/the hosp staff coming @ all hrs to check VS, give rx’s, etc.
☞ Continuous light lvls
- Continuous disruption of the normal biorhythms w/lights on continually (no ref to day or night)
☞ Stress
- Pts in an ICU freq feel the almost total loss of control over their life
☞ Lack of orientation
- A pt’s loss of time & date
☞ Medical monitoring
- The cont monitoring of the pt’s VS, & the noise monitoring devices make can be disturbing & create sensory overload
Medical Causes
☞ Pain
- Which may not be adequately controlled in an ICU
☞ Critical Illness
- The pathophysiology of the dz, illness, or traumatic event - the stress on the body during an illness can cause a variety of sx’s
☞ Medication reaction or s/e’s
- The admin of rx’s typ given to the pt in the hosp setting that they have not taken before
☞ Infection
- Creating fever & toxins in the body
☞ Metabolic dist
- Electrolyte imbalance, hypoxia (low blood O2 lvls), & elevated LFT’s
☞ Heart failure
- Inadequate CO
☞ Cumulative analgesia
- The inability to feel pain while still conscious
☞ Dehydration
Critical Care: Assessment
- Respiratory
- Cardiac
- Complications
> Watch for subtle changes
Respiratory Assessment
How is the patient?
- What is the rate?
- Is breathing normal?
- What are the breath sounds?
- What are the ABGs?
☆ Pts who already have chronic resp dz, when there’s a minor change in resp problems, it can mean a severe gas exchange problem
Normal ABG’s
Cardiac Assessment
What is the HR?
What is the rate/rhythm?
What is the BP?
MAP
Must be @ least 60 mmHg to maintain adequate blood flow through coronary arteries
Unable pt may need -
- Hemodynamic monitoring
- Mechanical ventilation
- Pacemaker
- Foley catheter and/or dialysis
- IABP or VAD
- Medications
Hemodynamic Monitoring
⭐ Invasive
- Arterial line
- CVP monitoring
- Pulmonary artery catheter
- Cardiac assist devices
- Intra Aortic Ballon Pump
- VAD
- ICP monitoring
Central Venous Pressure
Used to assess right ventricular function systemic fluid status
Normal CVP is __-__ mmHg
0-8
CVP is elevated by
! over hydration
! HF
! positive pressure breathing, straining
CVP decreases with
- hypovolemic shock from hemorrhage, fluid shift, dehydration
- negative pressure breathing which occurs when the pt demonstrates retractions or mechanical negative pressure which is sometimes used for high spinal cord inj
Nurse’s Role
- Dressing changes
- Pressure monitoring
- Assess for complications
> Infection
> Pneumothorax
Pulmonary Artery Pressure
- To assess the left ventricular end-diastolic pressure indirectly
- To evaluate the hemodynamic response to fluid therapy, rx, & other treatments
- To obtain accurate central vascular pressures in the presence of low CO
- To obtain mixed venous blood samples
- To measure CO
Pulmonary Artery Catheter
Nursing Responsibilities Post-Insertion
✓ Make sure that PAC cap is in the lock position so catheter will not migrate
✓ Secure catheter to pt w/tape
✓ Apply occlusive drsg
✓ Set high & low alarms on monitor as appropriate for pt
✓ Double check to assure that physician has disposed of all sharps
✓ Double check to see that cxray was ordered
✓ VS, pulm artery pressures, SvO2 saturation (immediately after insertion & per standard)
✓ PAC insertion site & how far it was advanced (in cm)
✓ Amt of air req’d to inflate balloon to obtain PAWP pressure
✓ Verification of xray placement of PAC
✓ Print & place waveform strips on nursing flowsheet
✓ Pt tolerance of procedure & rx’s given during procedure
Complications of Catheter Placements
❌ Hemorrhage (on warfarin, clotting disorders)
❌ Arrhythmias
❌ Perforations
❌ Catheter occlusion (by a blood clot or kinked tube)
❌ Infection (asepsis needed)
❌ Air embolus (air entering venous system)
❌ Catheter displacement (if CVC moves into chambers of the heart)
Pulmonary Artery Catheter: Nurse’s Role
☞ Site care
☞ Monitor for infection
☞ Monitor for complications
- PA rupture, thromboembolism, air embolism
Using a manometer
☞ CVP is usually recorded @ the mid-axillary line where the manometer arm or transducer is lvl w/the phlebostatic axis
- This is where the 4th ICS & mid-axillary line cross each other allowing the measurement to be as close to the right atrium as possible
Using a transducer
☞ Transducer is used to convert the pressure from right atrium into electrical signal
Swan Ganz Catheter
Parameters
CVP: 0-8 mmHg
PAP (mmHg)
Systolic: 15-30
Diastolic: 4-12
Mean: 9-16
PAWP: 2-12
CO: 4-6 L/min
PVR: 22-180
SVR: 800-1400
Intra Aortic Balloon Pump
☞ Catheter w/an inflatable balloon @ the end; 30-40 cc
☞ Inserted via the femoral artery & the balloon is positioned in the descending thoracic aorta
☞ Uses internal counterpulsation through the regular inflation & deflation of the balloon to augment the pumping action of the heart
☞ Ballon inflates during diastole & deflates before systole; timing of the inflation & deflation is initially done using the EKG & fine tuning timing using the arterial pressure wave
What does this do?
Helps with pumping action of the heart to decrease workload of heart (decrease after load); also increases CO, perfusion
Ventricular Assist Device
- Mechanical pump
- “Bridge to transplant”
- Alternative to heart transplant
Acute Respiratory Failure: ABGs
Oxygenation Failure
PaO2 < ___ mmHg (hypoxemic/oxygenation failure)
60
OR Ventilation Failure
PaCO2 > ___ mmHg
with pH < ___ = ventilatory failure (hypercapnic ventricular failure)
45
7.35
SaO2 is <90% in both cases
Oxygenation failure, ventilatory failure, or BOTH ventilatory/oxygenation failure patient is always hypoxemic
Ventilatory Failure
☞ Physical problem of lungs or chest wall
☞ Defect in resp control center in brain
☞ Poor function of resp muscles, esp diaphragm
☞ Extrapulmonary & intrapulmonary causes
☞ CNS depression (opioid overdose)
☞ COPD
☞ Brain trauma
☞ High SCI’s
☞ Neuromuscular diseases like ALS
Oxygenation Failure
☞ Insuff oxygenation of pulmonary blood @ alveolar lvl
☞ Ventilation normal, lung perf decreased
☞ Right to left shunting of blood
☞ V/Q mismatch
☞ Low partial pressure of O2
☞ Abn Hgb
☞ Low atmospheric oxygen conc
☞ High altitudes, closed spaces, smoke inhalation, CO poisoning
☞ PNA
☞ CHF w/pulm edema, PE
☞ ARDS
☞ Interstitial pneumonitis - fibrosis
☞ Hypovolemic shock
☞ Hypoventilation
☞ Complications of nitroprusside therapy: thiocyanate toxicity, methemoglobinemia
Combined Ventilatory/Oxygenation Failure
> Often occurs in pts w/abn lungs
- Chronic bronchitis
- Emphysema
- Asthma attack
- CF
> Diseased bronchioles & alveoli cause oxygenation failure; work of breathing increases; resp muscles unable to function effectively
Manifestations: ARF
ABG studies are reviewed to most accurately identify the degree of hypoxia & hypercarbia
Impending Resp Failure
✏ Restlessness, irritability, confusion
✏ Dyspnea, orthopnea
✏ Resp rate/pattern changes
✏ Lung sound changes
✏ O2 sats may/may not be decr / End tidal CO2 may be more accurate
Signs of Deterioration
✏ Positioning of pt
✏ Inability to speak
✏ Change in I/E ratio
✏ Muscle retractions/access muscle use
✏ Incr breath effort
✏ Crackles/rhonchi
✏ Absent/dim lung sound
✏ Pleural friction
✏ Bronchial sounds/lung periphery
Dyspnea Interventions
✐ Oxygen therapy
✐ Position of comfort
✐ Breathing exercises
✐ Relaxation, diversion, guided imagery
✐ Energy-conserving measures
✐ Meds: MDI’s, corticosteroids, diuretics, analgesics, neuromuscular blockade drugs