First Code Blue

Yeppers. You get two choices-chemicals or electricity.

LOL...my son just so put it into perspective! "mom, you can't shock a sony playstation that is already dead..you will fry it!....some time and thinking of why it shut down is in order...too bad people aren 't like sony playstations though...they have a reset button!"

Good advice from a 12 year old! LOL!!!!!!!

LOL the kid can use critical thinking. Good for him.

When I was a pediatric oncology floor nurse about 7 years ago, one of my coworkers was in a room with one of the residents. This is infant was really sick and stopped breathing (was on a monitor). As my coworker was reaching for the ambu bag, the resident up and left the room! After standing there incredulous for a second, she poked her head out of the door, looked at the charge nurse and said," I guess I am going to have to call it". The charge nurse looked at her and said, "call what?" My coworker replies, "ah, that would be a code!!!". All hell breaks loose, everyone goes running into the room and the resident leaves the floor!

I thought you all would enjoy that story!

just one thing- no, it never gets any easier when they die. you keep expecting it to but it just doesn't

My last unit was code central, and every code looked like we were trapped in a 3 Stooges movie. That's what codes are like, not the calm, smooth running things on TV.

A good code is when everybody knows what to do, the code sheet is filled out, all protocols are followed, and everybody does his or her job. Patient outcome is irrelevant to a good code, we can't save them all.

A bad code is one where people freeze and refuse to get out of everyone else's way and where multiple docs show up and nearly come to blows over what to do next, ignoring the protocols and creating enough of a distraction that the code sheet is lost. Patient outcome is irrelevant here, too. Sometimes they stubbornly survive no matter what doc or other specialist is waving his or her ego around that day.

So, what do you think of your first code now?

Compressions should be occurring at first sign of code blue. These should continue until a defib is indicated. (v-fib/tach) Asystole should never be shocked. The point of a shock is to slow a V-tach and possibly convert to a perfusing rhythm. If you shock asystole -chances of regaining a beat is even more distant.