Reading through TheCommuter's article regarding the "deskilling" of nursing got me to thinking: Does your facility permit ACLS nurses to manually defibrillate without an MD present?
It's pretty simple stuff and there's a good reason to permit it: Namely, time-to-CPR and time-to-defibrillation are the two best predictors of outcome for cardiac arrest.
The question is, does your facility empower its nurses to act in the best interest of the patient or must you wait for the MD/code team before defibrillating?
The hospital I'm at doesn't have much of a code team. An ICU nurse and a respiratory therapist. Your fellow nursing staff is the team & it is run by the charge nurse. No doctor ever shows up. We are all required to be ACLS certified.
Jennerizer, ASN, RN
728 Posts
The hospital I'm at doesn't have much of a code team. An ICU nurse and a respiratory therapist. Your fellow nursing staff is the team & it is run by the charge nurse. No doctor ever shows up. We are all required to be ACLS certified.