Travel Nurse RN - ICU - Intensive Care Unit
Madisonville, KY
Malone Healthcare - Nursing
3x12 hrs, Nights
Referral Bonus

An ICU nurse trained in CABG (Coronary Artery Bypass Graft) and CRRT (Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy) manages highly unstable, complex cardiovascular and critically ill patients requiring advanced life support. [1, 2]

CABG (Open-Heart Surgery) Recovery

• Hemodynamic Monitoring: Tracking arterial lines, central venous pressure, and cardiac output closely to spot low blood pressure or bleeding early.
• Airway & Ventilation: Managing patients on mechanical ventilators immediately post-op and weaning them off breathing tubes when awake.
• Chest Tube Maintenance: Monitoring drainage output from the mediastinal and pleural chest tubes to watch for dangerous fluid buildup or cardiac tamponade.
• Pacing & Rhythms: Watching for lethal heart rhythm changes and managing temporary epicardial pacemaker wires if the heart rate drops.

CRRT (Continuous Dialysis) Management

• Circuit Operation: Priming, setting up, and managing a continuous extracorporeal blood filtration circuit 24 hours a day.
• Fluid and Electrolyte Balance: Accurately programming hourly fluid removal goals and replacing electrolytes for patients too fragile for standard intermittent dialysis.
• Troubleshooting Alarms: Rapidly identifying and resolving pressure changes, air bubbles, or filter clotting to keep the blood clean and prevent treatment interruptions.
• Anticoagulation: Administering regional citrate or systemic heparin safely into the machine circuit to keep the filter from clotting off.