Welcome to the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit or CVICU in the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre
at Toronto General Hospital – part of the University Health Network.
After watching this video you will know:
What to expect when visiting the CVICU,
Common equipment used in the CVICU,
How to take part in your loved one’s care This may be a difficult time for you.
You may have a lot to think about.
You may be experiencing emotional stress, and coping with an overwhelming amount of information.
We hope this video will help by providing you with a better understanding of the CVICU
and what to expect during your visit.
The CVICU meets the needs of patients who have a condition that requires the skill of
highly trained, compassionate health care professionals and specialized, modern technology.
Our goal is to provide the best possible care after heart surgery.
We achieve this by working together with you and your loved ones.
Before entering the unit, we ask that you call in from the CVICU waiting room on the
second floor to the CVICU nursing station at extension 3550.
The ward clerk will transfer your call to your loved one's room to speak with the nurse.
This is to make sure it is an appropriate time to visit.
To ensure the privacy and safety of others, we ask for only two visitors at a time.
Once you enter the double doors into the unit, turn left, and walk down the hall to the main nursing station.
You can check in here to see which room to go to.
Seeing someone you love in a Critical Care setting after heart surgery can be overwhelming
for you; they might not look the same as before the surgery.
There will be many lines, tubes and unfamiliar equipment at the bedside.
To help you understand what all this is for, let’s take a closer look.
After heart surgery, here are about 12 pieces of equipment you will see.
All of these are important to help your loved one recover from heart surgery.
Next to every bed is a ventilator or breathing machine.
This machine helps deliver oxygen through this breathing tube. or endotracheal tube. into the lungs.
The ventilator can give all breaths or allow your loved one to breathe on their own.
It all depends on how sleepy they are after surgery.
You will also see a monitor beside the bed.
This monitor is tracking vital signs like heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen.
Please do not focus on the numbers and alarms.
The alarms may only be gentle reminders and the nurses are consistently watching them.
The monitor also shows the electrical activity of the heart and heart rate.
You can see it in green, here on the monitor.
On the wrist or arm will be an arterial line or “art line”.
The art line allows the nurses to withdraw pain free blood samples when needed, and also
constantly measures blood pressure.
You can see it in a red colour here on the monitor
This sticker on the finger is called an oxygen saturation probe.
It measures how much oxygen is in the body.
This line is also connected to the bedside monitor – here
Another line you may see on the hand or arm is an Intravenous Catheter, or I.V.
Fluid or medication may be given through this line.
Here, on the neck you will see another line split into two.
It is placed in a bigger vein that leads directly into the heart.
This yellow coloured line is called a Pulmonary Arterial or P.A.
Catheter.
It is important for the care and recovery of your loved one after heart surgery as it
measures different pressures in the heart.
You can see it in yellow on the monitor.
This line is called a CORDIS.
It is a catheter used to give medications and fluid.
This is not painful to have – a slight pinching may be felt at the insertion site.
As you can see, all catheters are connected to I.V. tubing and I.V. pumps.
These machines help deliver a constant stream of medication or fluid.
The bags hanging on the top are either medications or fluid, for example, this white coloured
medication is used for sedation.
On the floor beside the bed there may be a chest tube drain.
After heart surgery, this is normal to have, helping to drain extra fluid and blood.
These tubes will usually be removed within the next couple of days.
Depending on the surgeon and the surgery, your loved one may instead have drainage tubes
that connect to one or more suction bulbs.
You will also notice a bag collecting urine.
It is connected to a foley catheter, which is a tube directly draining urine from the
bladder.
The nurses use this to monitor how the kidneys are working after surgery.
There may be other pieces of equipment or tubing that may be in your loved one’s room
that are not in this video.
Ask the nurse or doctor if you have any questions.
The CVICU health care team is a group of highly trained professionals including doctors, nurses,
respiratory therapists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, and other health care workers
who are all part of your loved one’s care.
After surgery, there is usually a primary nurse caring for one patient to monitor constantly
and provide the best care.
Please remember, that sedation medication may still be given to keep your loved one
asleep.
Once they are awake enough, the CVICU team will decide when to remove the breathing tube.
The team also monitors patients at the nursing station through a central monitor.
At times, when they may be alone for a few minutes, someone is always keeping a close
eye on them.
Toronto General Hospital is a teaching hospital; it is common to have more than one doctor
take part in your loved one’s care.
Every day, the CVICU team meets to talk about the plan of care.
This is called ‘rounds’.
You are welcome to listen and ask questions after rounds.
You may have many questions, try writing them down on a piece of paper so you don’t forget.
To take part in rounds for the first time, you may want to start by asking:
How is my loved one doing?
What can I do to help?
What is the plan for today?
When a loved one is ill and in the CVICU, you may think that you always have to be at
the bedside and may feel tired.
Here are some tips as a caregiver: Take care of yourself.
You cannot help anyone if you are tired and become sick.
Eat for energy, rest, and sleep.
When your loved one is ready to go home, you may have a lot to do.
The health care team is here to help.
Talk to them about your worries and what support you may need.
Our goal here is to provide the best possible care after surgery, let us help to make your
visit a smooth one.
For more information you may go to the uhn.ca website and search CVICU.