tele and chest compressions

[casi, ASN, RN]

This is kind of an odd question but I’m going to preface it by saying that I don’t have any tele training. I’ve picked up a few small basics from working on tele floor as an aide and smidgens of info from school.

I was watching a code on the tele monitors a few nights ago. It appeared to me that the patient had been paced and was now having slow paced beats. A co-worker walked up and mentioned that the beats were probably from the chest compressions.

I didn’t think you could see chest compressions on a heart monitor unless they showed up as artifact. My thinking was that the heart monitors read electrical reactions in the heart and that CPR basically is the manual squishing of the heart to provide some blood circulation. I assumed that there would be no effects to the electrical readings.

So can chest compressions be seen on a tele monitor?

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

yes, you can see the chest compressions on the tele monitors from the manual compression of the heart by the person performing CPR.... that is why you have to stop compressions every few minutes and step back to allow the defibrillator to reanalyze the rhythm to determine whether or not the patient's heart actually has electrical activity or what was being read was the CPR induced artifact.... :)

[NurseyPoo7]

You should. If you tap with your finger on one of the leads it actually rings as "V Tach" on the monitor sometimes. Sternum rubs can do it sometimes, too.

Thanks for remote tele for callin Rapid Responses for this!

[flightnurse2b, LPN]

on a five lead tele monitor, if you tap the green lead, it looks just like torsades. it's terrible. one of my co-workers put a monitor on and scared me to death one time.

[BrnEyedGirl, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

Brushing your teeth often looks like Vtach too! :)

[patrick1rn, MSN, RN, NP]

Yes, and yes, except in critical care, we dont use an automated defibrilator to look for a shockable rhythm. and dont mess with the Tele leads either,or the Nurse or tech in the tele room will call you and tell you to check on that patient.