Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU)
Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU)
Leadership
Karen Magarelli, MSN, RN
Nursing Director
Linda Tamburri, MS, RN, APN, CCRN
Clinical Nurse Specialist
About the Unit
MICU is a 16-bed unit located in the Cancer Hospital Building on the third floor. It is open 24-hours- a-day, 7-days-a-week.
Staff
Head Nurse: Kathy Murphy, RN, CCRN
Head Nurse: Mary Ellen Ferrara, BSN, RN, CCRN
Head Nurse: Lauren Michaels, BSN, RN, CCRN
Case Manager: Jackie Barlow-Holmes, RN
Social Worker: Aleya Farrell
There are one or two critical care technician(s) each shift who assist with basic patient care. There is a unit secretary on each shift to perform data entry and secretarial duties.
Patient population
The MICU nursing staff cares for adult patients ages 18 years through the lifespan who have a variety of medical diagnoses requiring intensive care. These diagnoses include but are not limited respiratory failure, sepsis, liver failure, renal failure, multisystem failure, gastrointestinal bleeding, diabetic ketoacidosis, drug overdose, cancer, stroke, myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, post-cardiac or respiratory arrest, and complications of pregnacy requiring critical care.
Patient Care Needs
Patients in the MICU require one-to-one or one-to-two nursing care. They receive comprehensive physical assessments, laboratory analysis, continuous cardiac monitoring, non-invasive and invasive, hemodynamic monitoring, continuous pulse oximetry, ventilator management, transfusion of blood products, and pharmacologic management including vasoactive agents, antiarrhythmics, analgesics, and sedation. Patients may also receive a pacemaker, defibrillation, cardioversion, continuous, renal replacement therapy, intracranial pressure monitoring, or bedside procedures such as central line placement, endoscopy and bronchoscopy.
About Our Nurses
Nursing care is provided by professional registered nurses competent in the care of critically-ill medical patients. Competencies include, but are not limited to:
- EKG certification
- Managing arterial lines
- Managing pulmonary artery catheters
- Managing mechanical ventilators
- Titrating medicated IV infusions
- Managing peritoneal dialysis with or without a cycler
- Managing a patient receiving conscious sedation
- Providing basic and advanced cardiac life support
- Utilizing train-of-four monitoring
- Managing a temporary transvenous pacemaker
- Managing temporary transcutaneous external pacemaker/defibrillator
- Performing cardioversion and defibrillation
- Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy
- Recovering a patient from anesthesia
