The other thread asking questions on certification and some of the responses got me thinking and curious.
Take out the human side of it, as a student, would you be excited to get to jump in on a code and do compressions? Like the first time or two you saw it, do you think you would hope to get to jump in and help or do you think you would be the one off to the side praying no one sees you and asks you to do anything?
I have seen a few RRT's but saw my first actual code with CPR involved the other night. I have seen a few codes called but they didn't end up needing actual CPR. Anyway, I really wanted to pipe in and offer to do compressions when they kept trading off. Everyone was getting exhausted and it was evident. My previous CI who is a NP at the hospital I was at showed up when they had called it, had she been there even 10 mins earlier I know she would have got me in to do compressions. My current CI was out that day and we had a sub. But she was very good friends with one of the docs in the room so had she been present that day I know she would have got me in the room to do them. Even some of the CO-Nurses I have had previously would have said something to allow me to do compressions. But none of the cards lined up that day. One of the doctors had a really bad reputation and this was completely unexpected code. (as in, this wasn't a critical patient or one that was even really sick) So given how stressful the situation was I was to weary to pipe in myself.
Anyway, my close friends in school and I have talked about this and we have said we would love to get the opportunity to participate, our instructor has told us that they found a student hiding one time in the bathroom of the patients room during a code. They were to afraid they would be asked to help.
What are your thoughts??
*disclaimer, of course I would never hope that someone codes just so I can learn to do compressions on a real person. Just seeing can be a very emotional thing. Along with seeing the aftermath of it all. (family coming for hours to say good bye and so on). As a student, as terrible as these situations are emotionally, they are good learning tools for us. I am ONLY talking about that aspect. Don't want it all twisted into something it's not
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
The proper way to relieve someone doing compressions in a code is to just step in and start doing the compressions. You will never see someone else refusing to stop so you can relieve them. It is not a matter of loving cpr or codes but a matter of saving lives and we all know that the survival rate of codes is very low. It is much more important to take actions in advance to prevent a code from occurring. This is what separates the the best practitioners.
The Code I watched at least 3 people doing compressions said "ok someone else take over".
As far as taking action to prevent it though, I must say. Reading all the back story. It was disheartening what I read. It was liking I was seeing what I learned in nursing school with S/S laid out and there but there was a lot of miscommunication. That is all I can say safely though.
When a patient is in trouble the charge nurse calls in a respiratory therapist and they try to perform pro active actions to improve the patients condition. Btw I dont know how many times when I was in charge and my nurses alerted me to patients in trouble that we were able to transfer to icu..before they coded.
Specializes in LTC, SCI/TBI Rehab,RX Research, Psych.
I couldn't help but to post---this very thing happened to me in 1992 as a student. We were told to line the wall of the ER room & watch only.---The physician running the code did his "YOU..come here" gesture, which my instructor OK'd. He put me right up to the table, doing chest compressions. My knees were knocking together so hard from the adrenaline rush, I had bruises the next day.
The worst part of the experience was that the patient turned out to be an uncle of a classmate that was in our other clinical group, elsewhere in the hospital while my group was in the ER...this came out during our post-conference...Horrible.
I immediately comforted the other nurse for her loss...and later, she approached me, asking if I was ok, since I was one of the first to experience the loss of a patient. This experience has served as a frequent reminder of how we're all connected, whether we realize it at the moment or not.
Specializes in Peds, Psych, Medical Home Case Manager.
As an aside, the "success" rate (meaning the patient eventually left the hospital alive) for CPR is 17% when performed in the hospital, 5% for those with chronic illness(es), and less than 3% in nursing homes.
I am in my final semester of nursing school, with just about 4 weeks left to go. Today I had clinical in the ED and I participated in my first code. My clinical instructor was not there (this was kind of an observational experience), but he had previously told me he'd be OK with me helping with anything but meds. So when they said "hey, student, you're doing compressions", I jumped up on my stool and got ready. Unfortunately the patient ended up dying after 30 minutes of CPR and drugs. I'm not really sure how to feel right now. I kind of feel numb.
I start my ABSN program in June, BUT I've been working as a CV tech for 3 years. Part of my job is to bring the EKG cart to every code and rapid response called on the inpatient floors...and since I'm there (and if they're doing compressions they're a LONG way off from needing a 12-lead), I learned fairly early on I CAN jump in and I CAN help. I worked my way up gaining confidence - started by handing flushes and running for supplies that weren't in the room when they were called for, then I would hold the doppler on the femoral and check for pulse between compressions, and then eventually someone asked me if I wanted to be next on compressions and I said yes. Now I always get in line to do compressions as soon as I show up unless I see a need elsewhere or am asked to do something else. I figure if I'm doing compressions it frees up nurses to be doing meds and labs and stuff like that.
I LOVE codes! I can't wait to be a more involved participant as I learn more as I begin nursing school.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
I am in my final semester of nursing school, with just about 4 weeks left to go. Today I had clinical in the ED and I participated in my first code. My clinical instructor was not there (this was kind of an observational experience), but he had previously told me he'd be OK with me helping with anything but meds. So when they said "hey, student, you're doing compressions", I jumped up on my stool and got ready. Unfortunately the patient ended up dying after 30 minutes of CPR and drugs. I'm not really sure how to feel right now. I kind of feel numb.
Was this your first experience with watching someone die? I would journal the experience, your feelings, the outcomes and what you remember feeling in that moment to help cope with it all. The outcome might not have been good but good for you for jumping in and trying to do what you could. It's an honorable thing.
It was not my very first experience. My first experience with death was while holding my pt's hand in hospice. That was different because she was in hospice and the death was expected, and welcome.
We are required to write a reflective journal as part of our clinical paperwork. It always seemed like such a menial task up until now. The last few weeks I've actually gotten quite a lot of personal resolution from the journaling.
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
It was not my very first experience. My first experience with death was while holding my pt's hand in hospice. That was different because she was in hospice and the death was expected, and welcome.
We are required to write a reflective journal as part of our clinical paperwork. It always seemed like such a menial task up until now. The last few weeks I've actually gotten quite a lot of personal resolution from the journaling.
Yea we have always had to journal but it always had to be about this and that and never really could be our feelings about how the day/night went. Now being in our last semester it is our feelings in our own words and I take a lot more from it.
I preformed compressions on a patient during my first clinical experience. It was frightening and exciting at the same time. We were at the ED to get experience with venipuntures and IV starts and a code came into trauma. Our preceptor had us watch that and the code that followed. Then he had to precept other students, he asked if we wanted to follow hang out and watch in the trauma area. Another 2 codes came in and there was no one else to do compressions. The doctors and nurses asked us to step in and start compression. There was no time to think, just adrenaline. But afterwards...it was crazy to think that I had done compressions/participated in a code at only 7 weeks into nursing school. Its great to think I was able to help so quickly after starting school.
.thumb.jpg.5aa4d55557c0228e31b94de19666bbbb.jpg){kind=small}
~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN
5,259 Posts
The Code I watched at least 3 people doing compressions said "ok someone else take over".
As far as taking action to prevent it though, I must say. Reading all the back story. It was disheartening what I read. It was liking I was seeing what I learned in nursing school with S/S laid out and there but there was a lot of miscommunication. That is all I can say safely though.