One of the problems with small town hospitals is that there are usually only one specialist in a certain field. In our field as Respiratory Therapist we use the the pulmonologist specialist for our profession because they are the specialty doctor who deals with the lungs.
Here is a good page on what a pulmonologist does if your interested: Pulmonology
So anyways because I work at a small hospital we only have one pulmonologist on staff which creates the problem of not having the chance to consult another pulmonologist on a case. With only one of these doctors on staff also lets them be the know all do all doctor in this field, saying we do it they way he/she likes it done.
On with my problem of weaning ventilator patients. When I was in school and also when I was at other hospitals vent patients were weaned much more smoother, the rate was slowly decreased as needed, the oxygen level was decreased, they were given time to just breathe on only pressure support ventilation, and then if they survived that we would run weaning parameters and extubate. This to me is a humane way to wean and extubate a patient, much more friendly. Now back to my one pulmonologist and the way he does it. First off we use Assist Control mode like it's going out of style (which is actually is) and SIMV is almost unheard of as if this pulmonologist forgot to renew his subscription to Pulmonology Today. These poor patients are always put on Assist Control with a rate of 12 or greater but now here is the part that drives me nuts we wean directly off of this, for weaning parameters or a Tube Compensation trial we got straight from Assist Control with a Rate of 16 to NOTHING and hope there are good weaning parameters!!! How can you expect a patient to do well if you go from full support to nothing, this is not weaning. Weaning is a gradual process to remove something from something, like a bottle from a baby, you slowly give the child less and less bottles and more sippy cups or whatever. We do a sink or swim type of wean. Full support to nothing, this is not how I was taught nor how I've ever seen it done at a hospital where I have worked.
Amazingly though this doctor is well liked and respected with how he treats patients and their illnesses but when it comes to vents, my department cringes but does our best to deal with it.
Any comments would be much appreciated, I would like to hear if anyone else weans like this.
Keep driving on RT's.
3 comments:
Do a lit search on spontaneous breathing trials-you might feel better then
I'll check it out, thanks.
We don't really have a ventilator protocol per se at Shoreline Medical other than standing orders for initial vent settings. We do, however, have an extubation protocol that you can check out here. We do not have a pulmonologist but five Internists who manage vents. Since this protocol was enacted the hours on vents were literally cut by 80%. The ironic thing was that one doctor liked the protocol we wrote here in the RT cave and basically forced it upon the other doctors.
Assist Control mode is never even used at the hospital I work for. I think most studies show you should set the patient up to fail before extubating. I don't think our protocol is ideal, but it's a step in the right direction.
Unfortunately, this is the only RT driven protocol we have at Shoreline.
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