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 front of the emergency med cart and just kept drawing up meds as they were ordered and quickly writing down time, medication, and dose with each one. I was nervous and just concentrated on my role, barely looking up to see what was happening. It seemed like it went on forever, though it actually just lasted about 20 minutes and then the patient was whisked to ICU.

Take my advice: be prepared.

The nurse manager congratulated all of us on a good job—the patient was resuscitated, there was minimum chaos, and no one ended up yelling at each other (that often happens when tensions are high and there’s confusion).

I was grateful that I’d followed the manager’s directions to check the code cart each day to get familiar with the contents and medications. I also appreciated her anticipatory planning to prepare for resuscitation processes—each day the shift charge nurse made assignments for “code duty” to facilitate a ready response and avoid confusion over roles. It was something I later did when I was an ICU nurse coordinator.

So take some advice: become prepared for your first code. The article will help. It will be free to read until the end of July. New nurses might also want to check out our collection New to Nursing for other helpful articles. (AJN subscribers can access all articles for free. You can subscribe here.)