NEW guidelines for CPR - ABC to CAB

[NurseBear10]

The American Heart Association announced today new recommendations for the way CPR is performed

Do CPR the right way: 5 things everyone needs to know - Healthy Living on Shine

[littlemammanurse, BSN, RN]

Thank you for this great article!

[watchasay10]

so does it also apply now to NCLEX when you are getting one?

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

This has all come about from the tedious efforts of Arizona's firefighters and EMS personnel when they began implementing a study on this a few years ago for purposes of testing and found out in fact that it works. Now that it's been established that chest compressions alone for the first few minutes can sustain a person better then the traditional breath and chest let's see how long it takes the Red Cross and the AHA to implement it into their certification process.

So what will happen since it's proven that this way definitely gives the person a better fighting chance? There needs to be policy changes and very quickly I might add. Remember it's only applies to adults in cardiac arrest.

http://www.arizona.edu/features/statewide-study-arizona-published-jama-show-chest-compression-only-cpr-improves-survival

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

Some commenters are bringing up the point that what if the problem is related to the airway? Furthermore, what if the person who went down actually has a pulse? Do you think the old arrangement, ABC, should stay as is?

[watchasay10]

Some commenters are bringing up the point that what if the problem is related to the airway? Furthermore what if the person who went down actually has a pulse? Do you think the old arrangement, ABC, should stay as is?[/quote']

yeah, that's what I'm confused!

[klone, MSN, RN]

Wow, three weeks ago, when I took my BLS recert, it was rescue breathing first, then chest compressions.

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

Do CPR the right way: 5 things everyone needs to know - Healthy Living on Shine

Anyone else notice the bent fingers in the article's photo??

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

Anyone else notice the bent fingers in the article's photo??

What about them?

[highlandlass1592, BSN, RN]

You are very rarely going to find an airway issue being the reason that an adult would arrest. And, for sake of arguement, if you have a choking victim and need to clear the airway, how do you clear it? Compressions. The data is listed in circulation to support the new approach. As to "commentators" I doubt they've completely read the updates yet..they just came out yesterdy. I just printed up copies and there is over 200 pages and that's only part of it.

[mccoy]

I guess my only question is this - Has anybody else verified the validity of the results? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for finding out the best way to treat patients, but some of it just seems a little odd, maybe just because I've thought of ABC for such a long time. I mean, how long does it really take to open the airway and provide 2 breaths *in MOST situations? It doesn't seem to me like that minimal time might make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. And sure it would get blood circulating faster, but does that really even matter if it's oxygen deficient blood? Just some things I think about... but like I said, I'm all for improving patients chances of survival, just as long as it gets more testing to approve its effectiveness and we don't change policies prematurely.

[OttawaRPN]

I didn't read the article but from my understanding the new chest compression guidelines are for the layperson ONLY, to encourage more people to attempt CPR during a crisis instead of twiddling theirs thumbs wondering what to do. There's nothing that's going to deter a person more from putting their mouth over someone else's than seeing vomit dribbling down the cheek, and how many laypeople carry a mask in their back pocket?

Certified health professionals would remain status quo, using ambu-bags, intubation, etc.