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Dedicated Inpatient Cardiac Units
McLaren Greater Lansing's inpatient cardiac unit staff believes in "high-tech, high-touch" cardiac care. Whether it's one-on-one nursing care in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, or telemetry monitoring and rehabilitative care on 4 North or 6 North, staff are specially trained to be attentive and responsive to the unique needs of each heart patient and their family. Consider the "high-tech, high-touch" perspective of personalized care through the words of these cardiac nursing staff -
Lisa Kammeraad, RN
4 North
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"We take care of patients who have had open heart surgery, thoracotomies, aneurysms … a lot of high-risk surgery. And the fact that it's high risk is always a big concern to patients and their families. They're afraid it will hurt to breathe after surgery, and we work with them to get them past that fear. Some patients are surprised that we get them up so soon to walk after surgery. We assure them it is okay; teaching is really an important part of what we do, in that we teach patients what their heart can still do.
"It's really the little things, though-making sure they have water at the bedside, things that make them comfortable-that they remember and appreciate the most. Listening to what our patients' concerns are, and letting them talk about it, is often worth more than any pill you could give them. That's what we try to do with every patient."
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Margaret Walchak, RN
6 North
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"Most of the patients we care for are people who come in for chest pain and we're trying to rule out whether they're having a heart attack. Sometimes they'll end up having an interventional procedure-an angioplasty or stent, for example, and we care for them afterwards. There's a lot of teaching involved with our patients. If they've had a heart attack, we'll want to make sure they know about risk factors, prevention, and restrictions they may have. A lot of our patients are with us only for a short stay and are then discharged to go home.
"Of course, during the first 12 to 24 hours, the biggest fear for our patients is usually of the unknown: Did they have a heart attack? What does that mean? So teaching them is a big factor in their recovery. We reinforce what they have to do to get through their treatment this time, and what they can do to prevent either another heart attack, or a first one.
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"Family members are always involved in the teaching. This can be a scary time for them, too, and can result in big changes in their lives and in the patient's life. So we reassure them and help them through it. The more we teach patients about their heart, and why they need to quit smoking or change their diet, the more compliant we hope they'll be. And that's our goal -- so they won't end up back in the hospital."
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