PROVIDING CPR IN A HEALTHCARE SETTING
First aid can be defined as the temporary and immediate care given to a person who is injured or who suddenly becomes ill. First aid includes being able to recognize life-threatening conditions and take effective action to keep the injured or ill person alive and in the best possible condition until medical treatment can be obtained. Therefore, one of the most important jobs of a First Aider is to supply basic life support, which includes artificial ventilation and circulation. This is obviously of critical importance in a healthcare setting where emergency situations are prevalent and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may be required at any time. This is of special interest to me because I am preparing to enter the healthcare field.
Cardiac arrest is a substantial public health problem, and a leading cause of death in the country. Cardiac arrest may occur in or out of the hospital. In the United States, approximately 350,000 people every year have a cardiac arrest and receive CPR, approximately half of which occur in a hospital setting. However, CPR alone is unlikely to restart the heart. Its main purpose is to restore partial flow of oxygenated blood to the brain and heart. The objective is to delay tissue death and extend the brief window of opportunity for a successful resuscitation without permanent brain damage. Administration of an electric shock to the subject’s heart, known as defibrillation, is usually needed in order to restore a viable, or “perfusing”, heart rhythm.
The Mayo Clinic provides the following advice from the American Heart Association:
• If you are not trained in CPR, then provide hands-only CPR. That means uninterrupted chest compressions of ab...
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...h in and out of the hospital. The new 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for CPR continue to emphasize the need for high-quality CPR. It is especially important to understand the roles in a multiple-rescuer scenario, and how to use an AED.
Bibliography
1. Mayo Clinic Staff. “Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR): First aid.” Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. 7 Feb. 2012. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
2. “Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.” Wikipedia. 8 Mar. 2014. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.
3. Butler, Janet. “BLS for Healthcare Providers.” American Heart Association. Mar. 2011.
4. Karren, Keith J., Brent Q. Hafen, Daniel Limmer, and Joseph J. Mistovich. “First Aid for Colleges and Universities.” Pearson Education. 2012
Despite the fact that from May 2009 - February 2010, in Contra Costa County alone, there were 9 sudden cardiac arrests experienced by children and youth, there is no standard curriculum in place at school for youth and their parents to learn lifesaving CPR skills. The youngest was 10 years of age and the oldest was 17, which resulted in 4 deaths and 5 saved lives (Darius Jones Foundation, 2011). In each case, there was a direct correlation between bystander use of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and those children who survived.
During clinical this week, the student nurse got the opportunity of an observational experience in a Specialty Care Unit. The student was directed to the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) to observe a patient that was critically ill and receiving extensive treatment. The student observed a nurse caring for a patient while administering therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest.
Hammer, L., Vitrat, F., Savary, D., Debaty, G., Santre, C., Durand, M., et al. (2009). Immediate prehospital hypothermia protocol in comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 27(5), 570-573.
I remember feeling quite puzzled by a sight during my first week in Boston; I walked by an individual someone who was lying down with eyes closed on the street and I was unsure as to whether he was just asleep, heavily sedated or unconscious. Even more disconcerting than this puzzling sight was the realization that I wasn’t confident in my ability to be of help if he was in fact in need of resuscitation. This disconcertion was taken care of in a few days when I completed a CPR course for all first year medical students at the end of our orientation
Healthcare professionals in the hospital settings has been recommended in cardiac arrest (CA) patients since the publication of two randomized clinical trials in 2002, the results of which demonstrated a significant improvement in neurologically intact survival for comatose CA patients presenting with ventricular fibrillation (VF) or ventricular tachycardia (VT) Current guidelines suggest that mild therapeutic hypothermia should also be considered in patients presenting with other rhythms although this has been less well studied.
CPR involves breathing for the victim and applying external chest compression to make the heart pump. When paramedics arrive, medications and/or electrical shock (car...
Compressions: Start 100X 1 min chest compression lots of 30 and 2 breaths then check pulse or reaction
An alternative to aggressive fluid resuscitation is hypotensive fluid resuscitation. A 2011 study by Morrison et al., looking at the clinical outcomes of the first 90 patie...
Kupchik and Bridges make a case that a need exists for an improvement in nursing care regarding the in-hospital cardiac arrest by believing there can be an improvement in the survival rate. “The percentage of patients who survive to discharge after in-hospital cardiac arrest us a dismal 18%.” (Kupchik & Bridges, 2015, p. 51) Therefore if the AHA’s five critical areas are used on a cardiac arresting patient, there could be a better and longer chance of survival. Once a person goes into cardiac arrest the first move is CPR; the AHA thinks we are compressing too fast, around 120 compressions per minute. The problem with this is it doesn’t “allow for full recoil of the chest and can lead to increased intrathoracic chest pressure, [overall] decreasing
The AED treats only a heart in ventricular fibrillation (VF), an irregular heart rhythm. In cardiac arrest without VF, the heart doesn't respond to electric currents but needs medications. The victim needs breathing support. AEDs are less successful when the victim has been in cardiac arrest for more than a few minutes, especially if no CPR was provided.
A Rapid Response Team (RRT) is a group of healthcare providers that are called upon when a patient is showing signs of rapid deterioration due to cardiac or respiratory problems. One of the concepts of a RRT is to provide the fastest response possible to an emergent situation, allowing any healthcare employee, being a patient care assistant, nurse, medical technician, or unit coordinator, to call a rapid response if a patient is suspected of going into cardiac arrest or any life-threating situation. By providing a RRT to a hospital, the risk of a serious adverse event is decreased. A serious adverse event is when there is a delay in medical care to a patient that increases risk of death or disability (Jones, 2011)
As you sit in a classroom at the Community College, you may not think that saving a life is something you could do today, but, in fact, it's quite easy to do.
First aid skills and kit is a dire necessity in unfortunate areas prone to accidents and natural calamities. It makes communities aware of the dangers posed to remain prepared for any
There are three major aims of First Aid. The first major aim is obviously to preserve a person’s life. Throughout medical care institutions, the main aim is to save lives and minimize the threat of death. The second major aim of First Aid is to prevent further harm to patients. The aim is to keep the injury from worsening. An example of this would be applying pressure to a wound to stop bleeding from becoming dangerous. The third and final major aim of First Aid is to promote reco...