UC San Diego

Due to a shortage of perfusionists and increasing utilization of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in the United States, many programs are training nurses as bedside extracorporeal membrane oxygenation specialists (i.e., nurse-run extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). Our objective was to evaluate if a nurse-run extracorporeal membrane oxygenation program has noninferior survival to discharge and complication rates compared with a perfusionist-run extracorporeal membrane oxygenation program. Additionally, to sought to describe increases in extracorporeal membrane oxygenation capacity and the potential for cost savings by implementing a nurse-run extracorporeal membrane oxygenation program.