It can be scary to take an Advanced Cardiac Life Support class for the first time. You may feel totally out of your element and may feel as if you know less than any of the others around you. While these feelings of low confidence are normal, you can do some things yourself to improve your experience. Specifically, you can follow these five tips to help you ace your certification exam the first time you take it. Learn to [...]
When you are helping patients in a health care facility, medications become an integral part of many of your treatments. This is especially true in the case of life-threatening conditions when code blues are called. As you study your algorithms in preparation for your ACLS certification or renewal, you’ll quickly find that the following medications are frequently seen throughout many treatment pathways. Atropine Atropine is the drug of choice for improving very slow heart rates. It is used as part [...]
High blood pressure, coronary artery disease and a variety of other heart and blood vessel conditions may gradually cause this condition. However, the most important point for you to consider as you care for patients with this diagnosis is how you can most effectively help them regain their health and avoid sudden death, which become increasingly common with severe CHF.
One of the most elusive skills for clinicians is learning to read EKGs. Even those who learn to recognize textbook examples at the drop of a hat may suddenly find themselves stumped in a real-life situation. You see, as with many things in the medical world, not all EKG patterns follow textbook examples. However, this brings us to question who should be able to decode EKGs? Should doctors alone be responsible for this important skill, or should you and your [...]
Confidence is defined as your ability to rely completely on someone or something. As a health care worker, you need to have confidence in your coworkers, but you also need to have a strong reliance on your own ability. This is called self-confidence. One of the areas in which it is easiest to lack self-confidence is in running or participating in a code. You may feel as if you wouldn’t have a clue what to do if your patient [...]
Do you feel stressed at your job? Well, you aren’t alone in feeling this way. According to the American Attitudes in the Workplace survey, 80% of Americans feel stress in their job and more than half feel that they need help in learning to manage their stress. What is stress? Stress is defined as an experience a person is exposed to through a stimulus or stressor; disruptive forces, a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse [...]
No matter how your health care organization is run, it definitely has a protocol for codes. Protocols are designed to help the code run smoothly and efficiently and to ensure everything possible is done to save the patient’s life. By ensuring that you and your coworkers are in your correct roles during a code, you can avoid chaos and confusion. Because a code is an ever-changing situation, some roles may change throughout the process. However, with quick thinking, constant communication [...]
Low back pain can be caused from many things. It can be from overuse or fatigue; however low back pain can have serious implications on health if not treated. According to the World Health Organization, the likelihood of getting low-back pain in industrialized countries (such as the United States) is 60-70%. Nurses and CNAs are at an increased risk. So it is important to know: what causes low back pain? Let’s start by talking about your spine. Your spine is [...]
If you currently hold an ACLS certification, you must make sure that you renew it regularly to remain compliant with your healthcare organization’s requirements. Your ACLS certification generally lasts two years and does not offer an additional grace period. Rather than looking at this class as a necessary evil, thoughtfully consider how it can actually make you a better health care provider. […]
As a medical professional, you already know how important fast medical care is for successful outcomes in nearly any health crisis. With fast care, mobility can be restored, infections averted and quality of life saved or improved. However, one of the most important areas for fast medical assistance is with cardiac arrest. When you’re the one to notice this life-threatening emergency, you must be confident enough to jump into action immediately and get help from other professionals as quickly as [...]
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