CVME Insider: Nursing Knowledge That Matters

2015 ACLS Summary of Key Issues and Major Changes Vasopressors for Resuscitation : Vasopressin 2015 ( Updated ) : Vasopressin in combination with epinephrine offers no advantage as a substitute for standard-dose epinephrine in cardiac arrest. 2010 ( Old ): One dose of vasopressin 40 units IV/ intraosseously may replace either the first or second dose of epinephrine in the treatment of cardiac arrest. Why: Both epinephrine and vasopressin administration during cardiac arrest have been shown to improve ROSC. Review of the available evidence shows that efficacy of the 2 drugs is similar and that there is no demonstrable benefit from administering both epinephrine and vasopressin as compared with epinephrine alone. In the interest of simplicity, vasopressin has been removed from the Adult Cardiac Arrest Algorithm. ETCO2 for Prediction of Failed Resuscitation 2015 ( New ): In intubated patients, failure to achieve an ETCO2 of greater than 10 mm Hg by waveform capnog...

We have been teaching CPR , ACLS , and PALS for over 5 years now and I always get the same complaint from many students.  "Why do we have to watch those stupid videos?"  We know that some of the videos you watch can be boring or repetitive; however, there is a madness behind the methods from the American Heart Association. A recent student from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania finds "using a video to train members of patients at risk for cardiac arrest in CPR may be just as effective as using the traditional hands-on method with a manikin." "The findings suggest simplified and more cost-effective approaches may be useful for disseminating CPR education to families of at-risk patients and the general public. The results are being presented during the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2015." (Abella, MD, MPhil) The cardiac arrests in the United States are typically responded and treat...

  This June, in honor of National CPR Week , the American Heart Association is calling on all Americans to learn how to give Hands-Only® CPR by watching a simple one-minute video. Once you have learned CPR, give 5 people you care and love about the same  power you just learned to help  save a life by passing on that knowledge to them to act quickly in a crisis. Don’t be afraid; your inability to  act cannot help . If you see an unresponsive adult who is not breathing or not breathing normally, call 911 and push hard and fast on the center of the chest. WHY LEARN CPR ? Cardiac arrests are more common than you think, and they can happen to anyone at any time.  More than 383,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur annually, and 88 percent of those cardiac arrests occur at home. Most victims appear healthy with no known heart disease or other risk factors. Sudden cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. Sudden cardiac arr...