42: Dry As a Bone: Acute Kidney Injury

In today’s episode, our host Sarah Lorenzini will be discussing a very important topic that all nurses need to know about, acute kidney injury, which is a common occurrence in hospital settings. As a rapid response nurse Sarah has seen acute kidney injuries often, but the treatment isn’t always cut and dry. 

Sarah tells us a story about a patient she was called to see in a rapid response situation and the steps she took to assess and take action when the patient went from a pre-renal kidney injury to intrarenal. She goes through each detail of the patient’s history, how the nurses relayed information, her interactions with the resident doctors, and why she made the decisions she made to get this patient well enough to be discharged from the hospital.

Acute kidney injury is very serious, it exponentially increases their mortality rate and decreases their chances of walking out of the hospital. Every step each health care professional takes with the patient is crucial, like the tedious job of charting those I’s and O’s.

Tune in today to dig a little deeper into this case study to learn about signs you should look out for to prevent a full blown acute kidney injury.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• The state Sarah found the patient when she arrived
• Steps Sarah took to assess his current situation
• What the patient’s nurse reported to Sarah
• A common dilemma when faced with hypotension rapid response calls
• Why Sarah wanted to send the patient to the PCU
• What happened to the patient after being sent to the PCU
• What is systemic vascular resistance (SVR)
• What is acute kidney injury characterized by
• Three basic categories for AKI 
• The most common cause of prerenal injury
• Acute tubular necrosis, what to look for, and how it’s developed
• What SIRS, Sepsis, and AKI have to do with each other

If you would like to check out the 1hr, 1 CE course, go to: www.rapidresponseandrescue.com

To get the FREE Rapid Response RN Assessment Guide and the coupon code for $10 off the cost of the course, message Sarah on Instagram @TheRapidResponseRN and type the word PODCAST!