Tele tech notification of leads off

[onerntish]

Is it a requirement that the tele tech speak directly with a nurse to report a "leads off" or could they tell the aide working with that pt?? Does this cause a delay if all nurses are busy??

[brownbook]

It is not a requirement. It may be a unit or hospital policy where you work? You would have to find your unit's procedure and policy manual to answer that.

Assuming (I know, dangerous to assume), that CNA's who work on a telemetry floor have been shown how to put telemetry leads on then the tech could tell the CNA, or RN or whomever the tech saw first.

I have a mental image of a tech, RN, and CNA standing around arguing about who is responsible while the patient goes into V-tach.

[sevensonnets]

On a telemetry unit the aids should be able to replace leads in the correct order. It's best to document who you reported "leads off" to and what time you told them.

[onerntish]

For anything critical absolutely speak with the nurse but to refuse to tell the CNA and speak to the nurse about leads off who will then ask the CNA to replace the leads.. Just trying to cut out some of the needless interruptions. But if the problem is not corrected then absolutely notify the nurse/charge nurse...

[Name9335, BSN, RN]

For our hospital, our tele central monitoring service calls the assigned aide first about an issue, and then if they don't answer, it gets escalated to the assigned nurse.... and then continues up the chain

[Scottishtape]

We only have usually 2 aides on our floor on any given day. The CMU will call the nurse responsible for the patient to tell us the leads are off or they need a new battery. That's routine for our hospital.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

A "lead off" alarm is most likely just that. Could be asystole.

Delegating lead check is up to your job description. You need to speak with your manager as to how to get the best, timely response.