Code Blue Drills

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How often do all y'all have code blue drills? We had one today because the end of the year was fast approaching. I have to say I'm so proud of the nurses. 9 of them showed up with their AEDs less than 2 minutes after the code was called and my building is huge. They told me they ran because they thought I was really in distress. They like me! They really like me!PS. Where are the smilies??

Specializes in Geriatrics.

Sorry we have never had one either. We have our fire drills, but not code blues. Hey, but this was the first year we had a tornado drill so maybe there is hope for us yet. Uhh....but that would require us getting an AED first :)

That is sad but true. Recognize though most of our population is long term care with DNR, DNI, and Do not hospitalize orders. The ambulance is only a block away(as my administrator tells me) so we have really never had a problem with this. Although I just wish they would see the population is changing and we need to go this route.

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Specializes in LTC, Nursing Management, WCC.

We don't have drills. We did have a code blue last summer. Everything went fine.

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Specializes in critical care, PACU.
Please note this was posted in the LTC forum..we are in a non-critical care area! We really don't get much practice with this so a drill is a great idea.

My bad. Sorry. I was looking under "What's New" and didn't notice. Carry on ;)

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Specializes in LTC.
We always have them at annoying times like the beginning of our shift because the nurse educator doesn't want to stay later than they have to. Then you get attitude for not showing up because your patient had new onset afib with RVR with doctor at the bedside demanding you to push this and that now.

Please don't do that. I think code drills are great for non-critical care or ED settings but man when they do it to us, it's such a waste of time because you can tell all the nurses are just going through it half-heartedly while thinking about all the things they need to do for their real patients.

Edit:

Oh and I know a real code would be just as inconvenient but that's the thing, it's a real code so of course we would drop everything to attend within the realm of safety. All ranting aside, I think there needs to be a better way to time it. I know there needs to be an element of surprise to see how people react but at the same time, nurses in all specialties are busy as all hell and taking time away from real patients is annoying.

We had a fire drill once at 4:30pm. During the middle of the medpass and getting people ready for dinner, while admissions coming in the door. NOT THE RIGHT TIME.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.
We had a fire drill once at 4:30pm. During the middle of the medpass and getting people ready for dinner, while admissions coming in the door. NOT THE RIGHT TIME.
You know what's really not the right time??? Having a real fire anytime and having the staff not know what to do because they didn't practicewhen the halls weren't really filled with smoke. I had to evacuate a unit one time and I was very happy that we had taken the time before the emergency to practice.
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Specializes in critical care, PACU.
You know what's really not the right time??? Having a real fire anytime and having the staff not know what to do because they didn't practicewhen the halls weren't really filled with smoke. I had to evacuate a unit one time and I was very happy that we had taken the time before the emergency to practice.

Yes but the point is that a drill is within the realm of control and it would be nice if it were scheduled for maximum compliance and least disruption to plan of care.

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Specializes in LTC.
You know what's really not the right time??? Having a real fire anytime and having the staff not know what to do because they didn't practicewhen the halls weren't really filled with smoke. I had to evacuate a unit one time and I was very happy that we had taken the time before the emergency to practice.

Remove residents, sound alarm, close all doors, extinguish/evacuate.

Fiveofpeep is correct, these practice drills cannot interrupt the care process. Staff will not be focused or get anything out of the practice drill if they have 1,000 different things going on.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Hospice, Palliative Care.

My old facility never had code blue drills until I begged for one; the nurse educator was surprised that we would need a drill; she said that it was a core skill and of course we would know what to do...um, no. Sure, we are CPR certified, but there is a bunch of other stuff like knowing the crash cart, paperwork, delegation, etc that really should be reviewed a few times a year, just so that we're prepared when it happens! We had a code one weekend, and I was the only person in the joint who had ever done CPR, so it was a very stressful situation that could have been avoided had we drilled. (I'm the fool who hangs on to every word that the fire company says, 'cause I am in dread of having to evacuate the facility.) For both fire and code drills, I'd rather have my current work process interrupted so that I'm prepared when the big one happens.

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Emergency preparedness is really important for the safety of all. All those kinds of drills are being conducted in our facility.

Regarding the code blue drill, the golden rule there is that...the rare it happened, the more drills must be done.

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