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COPYRIGHT 2006 A Thomson Healthcare Company
New guidelines will revamp ED nursing care of cardiac patients
Recommendations require 'change in mindset'
If a patient in your ED goes into cardiac arrest, would your goal be to get the defibrillator to the patient as quickly as possible — even if that means delaying continuous cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)?
If so, you're not in compliance with new guidelines from the American Heart Association (AHA) for emergency cardiovascular care.1
Previously, early defibrillation was the priority, with CPR considered as the intervention to perform only until definitive treatment occurred. "The evidence now suggests that it is only with adequate and continuous CPR that defibrillation can be successful," says Barbara Weintraub, RN, MSN, MPH, APN, CEN, manager of pediatric emergency services at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, IL. "The ED nurse's main goal now is to ensure that CPR continues in as uninterrupted a manner as possible."
The new AHA guidelines will affect ED nurses in many ways, but are simpler overall, says Rebecca Steinmann, RN, MS, CEN, CCRN, CCNS, clinical educator for the ED at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. For example, nurses no longer need to determine the range of atropine dose for bradycardias or determine ejection fraction status for patients with tachycardias, she explains. "Overall, the new guidelines simplify treatment, with fewer drugs and interventions to learn, and put the focus back on the basics of CPR," she says....
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