I have a pair of Caribbean Blue scrubs that are bad luck. it seems that every time I wear them something bad happens. That something bad is usually admitting a patient that has a balloon pump.

A ballon pumps official name is Intraaortic Balloon Pump (IABP). It's purpose is to decrease the overall workload of the heart.Essentially, it creates an artificial pressure in the heart so that when the heart exerts pressure for systole, there is partial pressure already in the chamber and the heart, therefore, does not have to exert as much force to eject the blood.

Cardiac, or myocardial (heart muscle) oxygen demand is then lessened as the force exerted is less to achieve the same purpose. Less force equals less oxygen demand. What that really means is that your heart does not have to work as hard to do it's work, hence the trickle down effect is a lowering of blood pressure and less stress on the patient.

Nursing care involves monitoring the insertion site for complications (bleeding, hematoma, circulation impairment to the distal extremity, pain), timing the pump correctly with the patients rhythm( which can change), proper positioning of the pump in the patient (meaning it has not moved up or downstream in the vessels..there are measurments on the catheter and the box) potentially causing occlusion of the renal arteries, and ballon rupture (THIS IS BAD). Whe , and if, the patient has an arrhthymia or flips back and forth between rhythms, timing of the pump can be altered so as not to interfere with the cardic cycle.

Every time I wear those things, I anticipate we'll get a balloon pump that day. Most days we work in controlled chaos. But the re are those days when even we feel like things are out of control. And inevitably somebody says "are you wearing those scrubs again??????"