Introduction (Cont) - Cardiac Monitoring
Part 4 (Cont)
Treat the patient, not the monitor.
Loose, or dried out sensors (electrodes) or broken cables may cause a tracing to appear much the same as one of these life-threatening dysrhythmias.
Part 5
What appears to be Ventricular Tachycardia might occur because the patient is brushing their teeth. This is referred to as "toothbrush tachycardia".
- This is caused by the repetitive body movement when brushing your teeth.
- This is not an actual cardiac event.
- Remember if you have an unresponsive patient, call a "code blue" (follow your facility's protocol) and begin emergency procedures.
Part 6
A variety of manufacturers offer a wide variety of cardiac monitors. A majority will have three or five cables. We will focus on the most common type today, the three-cable device.
Authors and Sources
Authors and Reviewers
- EKG heart rhythm modules: Thomas O'Brien.
- EKG monitor simulation developer: Steve Collmann
-
12 Lead Course: Dr. Michael Mazzini, MD.
- Spanish language EKG: Breena R. Taira, MD, MPH
- Medical review: Dr. Jonathan Keroes, MD
- Medical review: Dr. Pedro Azevedo, MD, Cardiology
- Last Update: 11/8/2021
Sources
-
Electrocardiography for Healthcare Professionals, 5th Edition
Kathryn Booth and Thomas O'Brien
ISBN10: 1260064778, ISBN13: 9781260064773
McGraw Hill, 2019 -
Rapid Interpretation of EKG's, Sixth Edition
Dale Dublin
Cover Publishing Company -
12 Lead EKG for Nurses: Simple Steps to Interpret Rhythms, Arrhythmias, Blocks, Hypertrophy, Infarcts, & Cardiac Drugs
Aaron Reed
Create Space Independent Publishing -
Heart Sounds and Murmurs: A Practical Guide with Audio CD-ROM 3rd Edition
Elsevier-Health Sciences Division
Barbara A. Erickson, PhD, RN, CCRN -
The Virtual Cardiac Patient: A Multimedia Guide to Heart Sounds, Murmurs, EKG
Jonathan Keroes, David Lieberman
Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkin)
ISBN-10: 0781784425; ISBN-13: 978-0781784429 - Project Semilla, UCLA Emergency Medicine, EKG Training Breena R. Taira, MD, MPH