CICU Nurse Reveals Five Etiometry Favorites

Etiometry has become an important part of the landscape in the CICU at a large children’s hospital in Salt Lake City, UT. According to Michelle R., CICU/ECMO RN, “For many reasons, it’s become the shiniest tool we’re using.”

Here are five of those reasons:

1. The granularity of data

“We do a ton of charting with ECMO, but just typing in the numbers doesn’t allow us to get a sense of how things can change over time. With Etiometry, we can see subtle changes as trends, and prioritize who needs more attention at the moment. The numbers aren’t going to lie. The platform provides transparency and takes away any subconscious biases in our heads.”

2. Easy access to data and visual representation of the patient condition

“Etiometry provides trended vitals at-a-glance, vs. the multiple steps and list of numbers in the EMR, which take longer, and makes it difficult to spot trends. I can walk by a room and see Etiometry up and know any and all critical information by looking at just one monitor.”

3. Care team coordination

“The platform offers a way to demonstrate the intuitiveness we all have as nurses. It tells the story of why we might be concerned about a patient, and provides great confirmation of our “gut feeling.” It’s great for mentoring and guiding new nurses, giving them a better global picture of the patient. We frequently use it to convey a holistic picture of the patient’s status to a physician, if he or she thinks an intervention might be needed.”

4. Risk algorithms

“We use the IDO2 Index^TM  as a team, to see if there’s a risk of inadequate oxygen delivery and determine how we can intervene earlier.”

5. User customization

“I love creating targets on the custom tab! If you enter the ideal window of where you want a patient to be and the set platform to visually depict minimums and maximums with shading, it’s an efficient way to show whether a patient is spending too much time outside any parameters.”

Michelle looks forward to when more units at her hospital will offer access to the Etiometry platform, because it’s helpful as patients enter and leave the CICU. “We follow children from the OR and in and out of the NICU and PICU – no matter where they end up in the hospital. Etiometry is another set of eyes,” she said.