Abstract
Can paediatric critical care nurses adequately evaluate the effects of routine care using traditional hemodynamic monitoring tools? Is the care and procedures beneficial or potentially harmful? How can this be assessed in “real-time”? Can newly advanced monitoring tools help determine optimal times to change inotropes, suction, bathe or reposition the child, or assess child's tolerance to weaning? Can these “real-time” monitoring tools guide nurses' clinical decision making for when and how to provide care?
Continuous monitoring central venous oxygen saturation can provide “real-time” information of the balance between oxygen delivery and consumption. Many seemingly innocuous procedures can drastically increase oxygen consumption needs, beyond oxygen delivery capabilities.
Nurses have knowledge of physiological causes and exogenous interventions that can lead to increases in oxygen consumption. While most of these interventions are necessary, continuous monitoring of central venous oxygen saturation, can help nurses at the bedside determine when the best time is to provide care, and how patient's tolerate it.
With health care costs, worldwide nursing shortage, and increasingly complex and critical diagnosis, there exists an obligation to decrease mortality and morbidity as much as possible. Advanced technology can provide an early warning in the extremely critical periods of recovery.
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Young, L. 1013 Can Nurses Use Continuous Central Venous Oxygen Saturation Monitoring, to Dictate How and When to Provide Care?. Pediatr Res 68 (Suppl 1), 504 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-01013
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-01013