Nursing Update 2009 - 2010 - Yale-New Haven Hospital

therapeutic hypothermia protocol.
“This truly was a collaboration among
cardiology, critical care medicine, emergency
and neurology services and allows
us to start treatment without delay,” said
unit-based educator Prasama Sangkachand,
RN, service line educator, Heart
and Vascular Center. “The Arctic Sun is
technologically much farther advanced
and easier to use when compared with
traditional body cooling-methods. Most
important, it allows us to spend more
time on patient care – and less on the
equipment.”
Sarah Gillespie (left), RN, is a nurse in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit who also volunteers for the hospital’s
Listen and LeaRN program. Here she takes a blood pressure reading of a visitor at the hospital’s annual
Community Health Fair where nurses and other health professionals provide free health screenings and
information to greater New Haven area residents who come to the popular event.
ICu nurses trained for
mArs therapy
In October 2009, YNHH became the
first U.S. hospital to offer Molecular
Adsorbents Recirculating System
(MARS) therapy – a form of artificial liver
support. MARS is FDA-approved for the
treatment of drug overdose and poisonings.
The patient is simultaneously connected
to a continuous renal replacement
therapy machine and the liver dialysis
machine. Often described as bridge
therapy, MARS therapy may lessen the
morbidity and mortality associated with
liver failure because it buys precious time
to locate a donor liver or for the liver to
regenerate.
Specially trained critical care nurses in
the Medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and
Surgical ICU initiate the MARS therapy
while working with an interdisciplinary
team consisting of staff from hepatology,
nephrology and pharmacy.
“Our first patient’s positive outcome
provides a glimpse into a new and
exciting future for the treatment of liver
failure,” said Dawn Cooper, RN, service
line educator, MICU. ■
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