ACLS Practice?

When I first transferred to ICU, I was terrified of codes because I hadn't been involved in very many. Since they are unfortunately a very frequent occurrence for our unit, I have had plenty of opportunities to practice. The best thing you can do is get in there! Just be in the room and you will learn so much. There are all kinds of tasks that you can do to help out - draw labs, start another IV, draw up flushes, be the recorder, prime some more tubing, switch out with the person doing compressions, put face masks on everyone if they need them. The more you are involved, the more comfortable you will become, I promise!

It's all about experience. The more you do it the more you become comfortable and know what's going on. Does your unit (If you are ICU) respond to in house codes? Maybe see if you can respond to those one night with the other ICU RN.

Thanks for the advice! It looks like it just takes time and experience to get comfortable. I'll definitely try to get into it doing some of the things I know how to do from now on. On a side note, one of my friends said that she uses a computer simulator to practice sometimes and it helps her a lot. I looked online and came across a couple and they look pretty good but are kind of expensive. Anybody have experience with these things and can recommend one?

Many hospitals and clinics have monthly,bi-monthly or quarterly mock codes to help define roles and increase comfort during the real thing. This may be a suggestion for your unit.

otessa

Join the Code Team.

Unfortunately, we don't have any connections with simulation centers at my place. But I really like the idea of simulating things before the real thing. After all, they do it in other professions like airline pilots. I'm going to talk to my supervisor to see if we can get mock codes set up, although I hope we can have them frequently enough.

Meanwhile, I looked at the computer ACLS simulators in more detail. The ones I saw generally run around $100 (some cheaper some more) and can be used on only one computer. I came across one (SimCode ACLS) that goes for $10/month which they say can be used from any computer (thinking of trying some cases with my colleagues at work). I'm going to bite the bullet and give it a shot - it's only 10 bucks. I'll let you know how it is in a few days after I try it out.

It's been quite a busy week but I did get a chance to try out not one but two ACLS simulators. One was the SimCode ACLS one and the other was a demo for one by Anesoft. The Anesoft one was good in that I felt like it helped a bit in getting better with the protocol after going through a case a few times. The interface is a little old looking and clunky but it works. There's a little video screen that shows you what you are doing to the patient. However, I didn't feel that it did much for getting a sense of the timing and flow of a code since the timing is a bit off (actions happen instantaneously, and sometimes I wonder if it even did anything). And since it was demo, I couldn't try everything out.

The SimCode ACLS one was quite a different experience and I have to say I found it to be better. The biggest difference I noticed was that intsead of a little video, the whole screen was interactive. You could actually click on each person in the room and move them around and tell them to do things. It felt more realistic, as though I was really in the room. I think its also because things took time to happen (e.g. I had to wait for the assistants to finish attaching the defibrillator pads before I could shock the patient). It was also pretty cool that you could "feel" for a pulse with the mouse. However, unlike the other simulator, the feedback at the end of the cases didn't spell out in great detail exactly how the case should have been done which I would have liked the first few times through a case. However, it does give you specific feedback (grades!) about your performance including things such as how often you did compressions when the patient was pulseless, and how long it took you to defibrillate the patient.

Maybe it's because I bought the 2nd one but I felt that it helped me a great deal more. I've done about 50 cases on it and I feel much more confident now (we had a code yesterday and I felt good during it because I was able to anticipate everything that was going to happen next - I think I can even run a code myself if I needed to!) I let some of my friends at work try it and they loved it too. We're going to show it to our supervisor next week. I think its great practice and for just $10, I definitely got my money's worth. I would say if you're at all uncomfortable with any part of ACLS, give it a shot.

You can find it at www.simcodeacls.com. You can also see the other simulator I mentioned at www.anesoft.com if you want to check that one out too.