[PHTLS]

Originally Posted by Traumamama59

It's not a good sign when the monitor starts showing a chaotic squiggly line and you find your patient face down in his oatmeal!



Other than that the most important rule to remember with telemetry patients is "treat the patient, not the monitor!" Don't ever think you can keep tabs on your patient by looking only at the monitor at regular intervals.

Good luck!
Pam

That's not funny. I've had patients like that

[stbernardclub]

Hi...when I started working in Critical Care, I picked up a book called EKG's made easy ( you probably seen the series, they even have nclex made easy). Well, what the book does is teach by association . Might want to check it out at your local Borders and see if you think it may help. And as a side note, nothing compares to a good nclex study book(with cd) for your exam...

Originally Posted by nicoleinphilly

First, I would like to say God bless you all. I am in my last semester of nursing school and we are learning how to read EKG's...I just learned it any my head is spinning!

Any way, I know once I start memorizing some stuff it'll make more sense but I was wondering if you guys had any memorization tips you learned along the way to recognize a certain arrythmia or ANYTHING that has to do with EKG's.
This repolarization and depolarization has me a little confused...does repol mean the heart isn ot contracting at the time and depol means it is contracting?

Please help me if you can! Thank you so much guys!

Nicole

[sargent]

The book i recommend to all my students is
Basic Dysrhythmias :interpretation & management by Robert Huszar.
Published by Mosby.

It takes you from the basics up wards and is probably all the ECG (oops sorry, EKG ) book you will ever need!

It has lots of pictures too, which helps you with the visualisation of what is happening in the heart to explain the recording that you get.

good luck

[illusiondweller]

I think to answer your question with a "memorization tip" on repolarization and depolarization would be: the letter "d" comes first and the letter "r" is after. Hence, "depolarization" is first, before the heart beat and "repolarization" is after the heart beat.

illusiondweller