Should Adults Experiencing In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Be Intubated?

Photo by A.J. Heightman / Journal of Emergency Medical Service / PennWell Corp.

Although it’s commonly practiced, results from a large new study call into question the effectiveness of intubating adults who experience in-hospital cardiac arrest.

As we report in a May news article, researchers analyzed data for 108,079 adult patients who experienced cardiac arrest in the hospital between 2000 and 2014—and found that patients who were intubated within the first 15 minutes of arresting were less likely to survive than patients who were not.

Among other findings, intubated patients were less likely to experience a return of spontaneous circulation and had a lower rate of good functional outcome (defined as either mild or no neurological deficit, or only moderate cerebral disability).

The researchers concluded that the study results do not support early intubation for adults who experience cardiac arrest. However, they noted that their analysis was unable to eliminate potential confounders like the skills and experience of health care professionals, the underlying cause of the cardiac arrest, and the quality of chest compressions. Additional clinical trials are needed to yield useful results and to better understand the influence of confounding factors.

2017-05-15T09:13:26-04:00May 15th, 2017|Nursing|2 Comments
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May AJN: A-Fib and Epilepsy Updates, an Ethics Collection, Diversity, Resolving Conflict, More

AJN0515.Cover.2ndAJN’s May issue is now available on our Web site. And in honor of the upcoming Nurses Week, we are offering free access to the entire issue for the month of May. In addition, because the American Nurses Association has designated this the “Year of Ethics” and the theme of this year’s Nurses Week is “Ethical Practice, Quality Care,” we have also made available a collection of some of our top ethics articles from 1925 to the present. Here’s a selection of what else not to miss in our May issue.

Atrial fibrillation adversely affects the quality of life of millions of people, resulting in significant morbidity and mortality and health care costs. Our CE feature, “Atrial Fibrillation: Updated Management Guidelines and Nursing Implications,” reviews the recently updated guideline for the management of atrial fibrillation and stresses how nursing intervention in patient education and transition of care can improve outcomes. This feature offers 3 CE credits to those who take the test that follows the article.

Epilepsy is a serious neurologic disease that affects around 2.2 million people in the U.S. “Epilepsy Update, Part 1: Refining Our Understanding of a Complex Disease,” the first in a two-part CE series, discusses new research on the causes of epilepsy, new definitions that are changing the ways we evaluate the disease, and the psychosocial […]

2016-11-21T13:02:40-05:00April 24th, 2015|career, nursing perspective|0 Comments
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