AED on Rehab units in LTC

Our Inpatient Rehab Unit is in a building adjacent to & conntected to our hospital. The IRU emergency cart has a LifePak 12 monitor/defibrillator with AED capability. The AED mode is initiated by the Rehab staff that first responds to the patient, and when the Code Blue "team" arrives it can be used as a conventional defibrillator.

All our Rehab nurses complete the AHA Healthcare Provider BLS course that trains participants on the use of AEDs. And the Manager arranges for (at least)quarterly "Mock Codes" to put the staff through the paces of responding to an emergency situation.

I believe that any LTC population, regardless of age, can benefit from having AEDs on site. I'm sure that not all "old" people in LTC are DNRs!

As far as valid data, here's the citation of a recent article discussing statistics related to cardiac arrest and the use of AEDs:

Nelson, R. (January, 2005). The public defibrillator...American Journal of Nursing, v105, n1, pp 25-26.

(Send me a PM if you can't find the article!)