This class is designed for Sharp Memorial 5W PCU and ICU registered nurses. It will provide an overview of the essential information necessary to provide care for heart transplant recipients.

The instructors will go over content pertinent to ICU and PCU care and the post-transplant phases, including the possibility of rejection and infection. The course will also address the use of immune suppressing medications.

At the completion of the course, the learner will:

1. Understand donor recipient matching
2. State nursing priorities immediately post-op

• Describe potential post-operative complications
• Anticipate immediate post-op, post-extubation and transfer orders
• Discuss treatment for acute right heart failure

3. Discuss immunosuppressant concepts in transplantation

• Understand transplant pharmacology
• Describe transplant rejection pathophysiology
• Recognize types of rejection
• Identify clinical findings and treatment modalities for rejection and infection