CPR IN NIGERIA

[nigerianmalenurse]

In 4 months time i would be lisenced to practise as an accident and emergency nurse in nigeria,i have neva seen procedures like intubation,ekg machine,defibrilator except in movies like house,er,scrubs,greys anatomy. While i dont mean to demean nigerian health standards,i nid anyone,sombody to answer this case scenerio 'a patient suddenly stops breathing,no pulse felt,cpr is started. what are the chances that the patient would b revived with only CPR when we dont have a cardioverter or defibrillator?,cos over here we continue cpr till we get exhausted and seriously since i enrolled into the a&e programm,we hav neva revived any patients,also bear in mind we dont have access to ecg,or ekg machines,we dont even know the rhtym.

[Silverdragon102, BSN]

Moved to the ER forum for more support

Welcome and good luck

[GilaRRT]

Interesting situation. Unfortunately, CPR alone will not usually be effective unless a specific cause is identified and quickly corrected. Do you have a doctor that you work with who would be willing to setup resuscitation guidelines for your working environment?

[Be_Moore]

The most common cause of a witnessed arrest (in adults) is Ventricular Tachycardia or Ventricular Fibrillation, for which the treatment is high quality CPR and early defibrillation. That being said, CPR itself could possibly correct the underlying problem, but defibrillation is basically it. Of course, there are many other rhythms and arrests that can occur...but without an ekg machine you'd never know.

That being said, you can only worth with what you have. I am assuming you are working/living in a rural sector of Nigeria? Within the larger cities (like Lagos) there is no excuse to not have defibrillators.

[nigerianmalenurse]

I dont liv in a rural area,actually i work/school in a university teaching hospital in lagos, yes..........its that bad

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

CPR allows you to keep the brain and organs perfused while you figure out how to correct the cause of the arryhthmia. CPR alone would be unlikely to convert a rhythm. If you witnessed an arrest, you could try a precordial thump (little effectiveness).