Lindsay Shields Email and Phone Number

The 14-bed Coronary Intensive Care Unit (CICU) provides quaternary level support for acutely ill cardiac patients. As the provincial centre for Adult Congenital Heart Disease, patients born with heart defects who require medical interventions are cared for in the CICU. Nurses require critical care experience to manage patients requiring mechanical ventilation, hemodynamic monitoring and tailoring, hypothermic cooling, Code STEMIs, Intra Aortic Balloon Pumps (IABP), pacemakers (permanent and temporary), dialysis, percutaneous left ventricular assist devices, pre-operative care of heart transplants and patients recovering from Trans Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI) and other procedures performed in the Cardiac Investigation Unit.

The CVIU, also known as the Cath Lab, is a regional, national, and international referral centre performing approximately 5,000 procedures a year. Nurses require critical care experience and or experience working in critical assessment and resuscitation. Critical care nursing skills include: invasive hemodynamic monitoring, IABP monitoring and care, pacemaker insertion and recovery post conscious sedation and general anaesthesia. Care of the patient undergoing; 1) Congenital diagnostic, and congenital interventional procedures such as ASD, PDA, PFO closures, Stenting of Coarctation 2) Percutaneous aortic, pulmonary and mitral valve repair and replacement 3) Coronary diagnostic and angioplasty including IVUS, Impella, IABP support and rotablation 4) Cardiac biopsies post heart transplantation5) Septal alcohol ablation

Patients with diagnoses of vascular disease may require interventional radiology procedures and surgical interventions including:1) Aneurysm repair (open and EVAR) 2) Carotid endarterectomy 3) Lower limb bypass 4) Amputation 5) tPA infusionThis unit consisted of a 14 bed ward and a 4 bed Acute care unit. The acute care unit received post op patients and patient undergoing tPA infusion. Required Acute care course that provided skills in cardiac monitoring, arterial line monitoring, chest tube monitoring, PCA and epidural monitoring,