Updated: Published
Let me make sure I'm understanding this correctly. There were parameters of when to call in the BP and he stayed within the parameters of the BP so they didn't call in the tachycardia? Makes no sense to me.
I've been to many a case review of a patients who have gone south and over and over the question was "was the doctor aware", "did the nurse call the doctor".
With tachycardia you sometimes have to dig deep to treat the cause. Often, as in your case, medication doesn't help. For example if it's anemia, sepsis, etc. a medication isn't going to help until you address the other causes. Good for you for being the advocate and brining in the MD awareness.
Googlenurse, ASN, BSN, RN
165 Posts
All weekend, a patient had a heart rate of 120 to 150. Patient who is 65 yr old has an intensive history of tachy, dm, heart failure, severe obesity. Yet not one weekend nurse called the doctor. Their reasoning was since his parameters on the monitor are low bp 70, high Bp 155, it was OK because it was within parameters. I noticed it was high, like 140 to 150 when I walked in. When he was sleeping it was 140 to 150.
I did get some orders for lopressor and Coreg. Even then the patient still had high heart rates. Actually, the heart rate didn't change