A crashing patient needed an intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP). The patient arrives to your floor. You take report. The pump is alarming. This is your first day using the device.
What do you do?
Learn IABP was created for you: the new graduate, nurse, paramedic, PA, NP, resident, fellow… anyone who needs to know how to operate a balloon pump or a specific IABP.
Each IABP has specific manufacturer procedures for use that can result in a “gotcha” moment. Know before you go. Explore before the situation is critical and the patient's life is on the line. Be the best clinician you can be.
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- 282 teachable facts, each traced to a page of the manufacturer's manuals, labeling, or a peer-reviewed paper
- 427 single-best-answer questions with a reason for every option
- 604 flashcards, including a shelf-to-support walkthrough and our own waveform tracings
- 12 step-by-step procedures in the order an emergent insertion unfolds
Who inherits the pump
CICU, CVICU and step-down
The pump comes back from the OR or the lab at change of shift. The nurse taking the patient may not have run one in months. The course gives every nurse the same walkthrough, the same alarm responses, and the same way of reading the balloon pressure waveform, with a manager view of who has finished what.
CVOR, perfusion and cath lab
Insertion is the easy part; the console is where the questions start. Perfusionists, cath-lab staff and the new cardiac-surgery PA get the FiberOptix zero, sizing check, timing rules and leak test as procedures they can open on the floor, each step with its reason and its page in the manual.
Critical care transport
Helicopter, fixed-wing and ground teams take a pumping patient they did not set up, on battery, with the helium tank they were handed. Battery and tank thresholds, alarm triage, pump-off management and the full procedure library, on a laptop in the aircraft bay or the rig with no hospital network required. The team page gives a program director the per-crew competency record that accreditation surveys ask for.
What a learner actually does
- Walk through it. A sequenced deck from choosing the balloon on the shelf to the first timing check, with the console step named at every card.
- Read it. Short cited documents per domain: alarms, trigger and timing, arterial sources, helium and power, troubleshooting. Hover any reference number for the citation.
- Test it. Clinical-vignette questions in random or domain order; every option explained; question IDs for reporting.
- Look it up. Twelve procedures in emergent-insertion order, with the controls involved, the cautions, and the waveform at the step where you read it.
For the person who signs off competency
A manager account creates a team and a six-character join code. Each person who enrolls with the code appears on the team page with reading, flashcard and question progress, walkthrough completion, accuracy, and last activity. Open any person for their per-domain detail and recent answers. No spreadsheets, nothing to install on the unit.
Three ways in
Free
The Foundations walkthrough, balloon on the shelf to the first timing check. Every procedure, the infographics and troubleshooting. One cited question in your inbox every morning.
No card. Keep it as long as you like.
Start freeOperator
The whole course: every domain, 427 explained questions in random or domain order, 604 cards with our waveform tracings, your progress and history.
One price, one year. For the new PA, perfusionist, fellow, nurse or intensivist who wants to walk on already able to run the pump.
Get OperatorProgram
Operator for every seat, plus the manager account: join code, team page, per-person detail, a printable competency record, and a weekly digest to the manager.
Per seat per year, in blocks of ten. Volume pricing for health systems and multi-base programs.
Set up a teamThis course teaches operation of the AC3 Optimus™ console. It is not a substitute for the manufacturer's Operator's Manual, the IAB catheter Instructions for Use, or institutional training and credentialing, and it does not cover insertion technique or clinical management. Independent; not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by Teleflex Incorporated.