Did I almost kill someone?

[AirforceRN]

Okay, first off (despite the title) nursing student here...1 month to grad. Just being a little preemptive...

I was on night shift the other night and had an uncontrolled atrial fib come. We tried the usual drugs and scare tactics to convert him but it didn't work. We decided to cardiovert with the paddles. I stick the paddles on the guy, there is a nurse and a doc and an RT there too, I pace him with the machine, charge to 200 joules and shock (after the propofol etc of course). His heart rate drops to about 140 from 160 and we still don't see any p waves and only irregular beat. The doc decides to shock him again. I charge the machine and am about to shock when he says "wait, I think he's good". Sure enough, although the rate was high, it was sinus and so I cancelled the charge and we just let him wake up. Today I was thinking....I didn't pace the machine before I recharged it, so if the doc hadn't stopped me, he would have recieved an unpaced shock. Bad news? I don't know. Any ideas?

[cappuccino]

You know what? This experience will keep you on your toes from now on. You learn from it and move on........

[bill4745, RN]

I find it hard to believe that they let you handle the defibrillator. As several people have said, you had no business doing that, but they should never have allowed you to do it, at least not without keeping a much closer eye on you.