By Amanda Anderson, a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City currently doing a graduate placement at AJN.

A postablation case was a rarity for me, even as an experienced ICU nurse. While floating to the cardiac ICU one day, I received a patient from the cath lab who had just undergone the procedure for recurrent atrial fibrillation.

My colleagues, experienced in electrophysiology care, gave me a heads up—“Just watch her rhythm. That’s the most important thing.” But no one could provide a standard protocol for me to follow in her care. While I had the usual critical care protocol for monitoring patients, and the orders given to me for this patient, before she arrived I did a little online searching to determine how to tailor my care for her needs.

The catheter ablation procedure involves electrical ablation of tissue around the […]