New Addition to Heart Institute Continuum of Care
from Caring For Our Future, Summer 2006
By Evonne Young, RN, Interim Clinical Director of CICU
What was once an idea and vision for The Children’s Hospital Heart Institute is now finally coming to fruition. On May 1, The Cardiac Progressive Care Unit (CPCU) became an official inpatient unit for children with cardiac disease.
Children’s Heart Institute leaders, in collaboration with staff on 3 North, have planned this unit for years. During the planning process, other children’s hospital’s cardiac programs were surveyed. Programs with cardiac intensive care units (CICUs) separate from the general pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) also had a separate unit dedicated to the care of post-CICU patients and other non-critical cardiac patients.
The goal of the unit, as defi ned by clinical nurse specialist Christine Peyton, is to provide patients with an easy transition from the CICU to the fl oor as well as to provide care for other complex cardiac patients. The nurses, physicians and support staff practice in collaboration to uphold the mission and vision of The Children’s Hospital Heart Institute, enabling patients and families to receive high-quality, seamless care throughout their entire hospitalization.
The CPCU will now have nine dedicated beds on 3 North as well as a separate nursing staff. At the new hospital at Fitzsimons, the unit will have 10 dedicated beds on the eighth floor.
There are several reasons Children’s needed the unit. The first is to serve the growing population of cardiac patients. The unit will provide a dedicated nursing staff. Like oncology, cardiac diseases are very complex. The nurses in the new CPCU will receive special training in cardiac diseases through the Heart Institute. Congenital heart defects can be so complicated and difficult to manage that a strong knowledge of the physiology and repairs are vital to good patient outcomes.
The orientation for the staff consisted of eight weeks of didactics, orientation in the CICU to develop assessment and critical thinking skills and orientation to less acute cardiac patients in the floor setting. The nurses on 3 North, who provide expert care for approximately 22 services, also were instrumental in developing the orientation program for the new staff on CPCU.
The CPCU will be managed by The Heart Institute Inpatient Clinical Manager, who also manages the CICU. A strong collaboration between these two units will ensure excellent patient outcomes and continuity of care. Education committees and clinical practice councils will be shared. The Clinical Nurse Specialist and the Department Education Coordinator of the CICU also will be serving the CPCU.
Twelve nurses have been hired so far for the CPCU. They are new hires or transfers from 3 North, 4 North and the Cath Lab at Children’s. The opening of the new CPCU was celebrated with a grand opening in June.
