killing the cardiac arrest mind donk.

OK, you have completed your Advanced Life Support (ALS) and Basic Life Support (BLS) education. Perhaps it was a few months back. Or perhaps you are due for a refresher. And then your patient arrests. When you least are expecting it. You immediately experience the arrest response mind donk. Your brain is  total beige…. and all your knowledge of the ALS algorithm seems to be folded up into an origami flapping bird that is migrating south to your sphincter. I am going to give you a rough thought-script to simplify the whole thing and get you over any mental donk by moving you to move your nursing team through the things that need to be done. This is NOT a substitute to the ALS pathway you have been taught, it is just a quick script to cover the first few minutes. By that time there should be plenty of assistance unfolding. And…I am purposefully skipping over all the intermediate skills and interventions that need to be applied. A knowledge of BLS and ALS pathways is assumed. Really, you know what to do. It may have just been a while since you have had to access that part of your brain. The purpose of this is to give you some solid waypoints, some goals to aim to reach quickly and effectively. A = Assemble (yourself and your team). B = BLS (yes or no)? C = Connect & Charge a defibrillator. D = Decide to shock. E = Every 2 minutes. Assemble (yourself and your team). Assemble yourself!  Take a serious instant to wring the adrenaline out of your brain. ALS is ea...
Source: impactEDnurse - Category: Nurses Authors: Tags: clinical skills Source Type: blogs