A Detailed Look for New Nurses at What Happens During a Code

Photo by Ashley Gilbertson / The New York Times / Redux.

There’s an article in the July issue that I highly recommend to all new graduate RNs—or to anyone who is returning to acute care. The article, one of the offerings in our Transition to Practice column, which is geared to new nurses, is “Surviving Your First Code.” It offers a detailed look at what happens during a code and the various responsibilities of the resuscitation team.

You never forget your first code.

I clearly remember my first code—and I bet every nurse does as well. I had seen cardiac arrests before, but that was when I was a nurse’s aide and my job during a code was essentially to get out of the way. It’s very different when you are a nurse and play a role.

It was my fourth day as a new graduate nurse working in the ED. We heard the sirens coming from a long way off. When the ambulance arrived, the stretcher came crashing through the ED doors with the paramedics yelling that the patient had just arrested as they arrived.

My role that day was to be the crash cart nurse, so I put myself in […]

2019-07-18T07:54:28-04:00July 18th, 2019|new nurses, Nursing|0 Comments
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Whose Child Is This?

And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death . . .

—Excerpt from “The Journey of the Magi,” by T. S. Eliot

Painting: Untitled. Oil on Linen, 10" x 8" by Julianna Paradisi 2012-2013 Painting: Untitled. Oil on Linen, 10″ x 8″ by Julianna Paradisi 2012-2013

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, writes a monthly post for this blog and works as an infusion nurse in outpatient oncology. The illustration of this post is by the author.

There is a nurse who loves running for exercise through a downtown park. And lo, it came to pass, one very cold day last year in December, that she came upon a host of people gathered around an unconscious man as he lay in the cold, wet grass.

Among them, three Wise Men were on their cell phones, calling 911.

These are my criteria for lending nursing skills to strangers:

▪    I witness the accident

▪   I’m the first one on the scene of an accident

▪    Others are first on the scene of the accident, but they don’t know what to do or are doing it wrong

This unfortunate man’s situation clearly fell […]

2016-11-21T13:05:52-05:00December 11th, 2013|career, nursing perspective|7 Comments
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AJN’s August Issue: Positive Deviance, Vital Sign Alert Systems, Using Focus Groups, Teaching Nursing Abroad, More

AJN0813.Cover.OnlineAJN‘s August issue is now available on our Web site. Here’s a selection of what not to miss.

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken in order to serve the greater good. This month’s CE feature “Exploring the Concept and Use of Positive Deviance in Nursing” aims to increase our understanding of positive deviance (“an intentional act of breaking the rules in order to serve the greater good”) within the context of nursing practice. You can earn 2.5 CE credits with this article. If you’re reading AJN on your iPad, you can listen to a podcast interview with the author by clicking on the podcast icon on the first page of the article. The podcast is also available on our Web site.

The early warning signs of deterioration that patients often exhibit several hours before cardiopulmonary arrest often go unrecognized by nurses. “Developing a Vital Sign Alert System“ describes an automated vital sign alert system that was designed to enhance patient monitoring without increasing the nurse’s workload. Earn 2.4 CE credits by reading this article and taking the test that follows it.

“Using Focus Groups to Inform Innovative Approaches to Care,” an article in our Professional Development department, uses case studies to describe how nurses can use patient focus groups for gathering qualitative data that can advance patient advocacy.

And if you are interested in what’s going on in the nursing world in other countries, read this month’s […]

2016-11-21T13:06:52-05:00July 29th, 2013|nursing perspective|0 Comments
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Making a Case for Therapeutic Hypothermia

Photo © Rick Davis 2011.

One of the articles published in AJN’s July issue that’s proving popular is “Therapeutic Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest,” by Jessica L. Erb, an acute care NP at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian Shadyside Hospital, and colleagues Marilyn Hravnak and Jon C. Rittenberger. The article points out that, despite evidence supporting its effectiveness, therapeutic hypothermia is not widely used.

According to the article’s overview, “Irreversible brain damage and death are common outcomes after cardiac arrest, even when resuscitation is initially successful. Chances for both survival and a good neurologic outcome are improved when mild hypothermia is induced shortly after reperfusion. Unfortunately, this treatment is often omitted from advanced cardiac life support protocols.”

The article discusses the efficacy of therapeutic hypothermia, indications and contraindications for its use, various induction methods, associated complications and adverse effects, and nursing care specific to patients undergoing this procedure.

Read the article (it’s open access)—you can earn 2.3 hours of CE credit.—Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

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2016-11-21T13:09:39-05:00July 23rd, 2012|Nursing|2 Comments
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Nurse Blog Notes: Generation Gaps, Hypothermia, Informatics, Nurses Writing

By Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor/blog editor

via Wikimedia Commons

Let’s skip the latest research findings, policy disputes, the unpleasant wait for the Supreme Court to decide the fate of health care reform. Here’s what we’re finding on the nursing blogs these days, a sample of recent posts you might find of interest:

The Nerdy Nurse offers “7 Tips to Be a Successful Clinical Informatics Nurse.” The post isn’t terribly technical; instead, it’s for nurses who might be thinking of going into this line of nursing, and to that end it highlights some strengths to emphasize in an interview.

At madness: tales of an emergency room nurse, a recent post called “There’s a Human Being Under There” sketches out a bit of what’s involved in inducing “therapeutic hypothermia” (for more detail, preview the July AJN CE “Therapeutic Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest”), but then steps back far enough to remember that all of these processes involve an actual person.

Those Emergency Blues takes an undogmatic look at so-called “generation gaps” among nurses. Instead of throwing stones, dividing the world into ‘us’ and ‘them,’ this post takes a more sensible, fair-minded, probing approach:

Ultimately what I am trying to get at is while I am sure generation gaps exist on units, I do not believe it is entirely as a result of degree vs diploma more than it might be just personality related. Differing maturity levels, different interests, and people at different […]

2016-11-21T13:09:52-05:00June 19th, 2012|Nursing|5 Comments
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