I work at a large hospital on the CardioPulmonary unit. My job is to either ward clerk and enter written physician orders into the computer to get processed, or watch the telemetry monitors. We have 36 beds and are often close to capacity. Cardiac patients wear a monitor with leads connected to their chest that send a signal to three computer screens showing their heart rhythm. I monitor the rhythms to determine what they're in, their rate, and changes the nurse would need to know about. Okay... there's the background to this story.
So... in some smaller hospitals the nurses are responsible for watching their own monitors. Sometimes the computer gets confused and can incorrectly count a heart rate. For example, if a patient is in a 2:1 atrial flutter, the computer may count the extra atrial beats as ventricular, doubling the rate.
Now pretend this scenario occured and an alarm rang for a heart rate of 140 when the actual rate was 70. The nurse trusts the computer and immediately calls the physician who given the nurse an order to give 30 mg IV Cardizem NOW for the heart rate of 140. The nurse writes the order and prepares to give the drug.
What could the negative outcome be for this patient with a heart rate of only 70? Huge! A simple assessment of the rhythm and patient would have caught the computer error, and another simple setting change on the computer could have corrected the heart rate.
Technology is a wonderful thing! It's amazing that we can continuously monitor multiple patient's cardiac rhythms from rooms away! But as amazing as it is, it still makes mistakes just like humans. We nurses must use our human brain power and be smarter than computers.
So... in some smaller hospitals the nurses are responsible for watching their own monitors. Sometimes the computer gets confused and can incorrectly count a heart rate. For example, if a patient is in a 2:1 atrial flutter, the computer may count the extra atrial beats as ventricular, doubling the rate.
Now pretend this scenario occured and an alarm rang for a heart rate of 140 when the actual rate was 70. The nurse trusts the computer and immediately calls the physician who given the nurse an order to give 30 mg IV Cardizem NOW for the heart rate of 140. The nurse writes the order and prepares to give the drug.
What could the negative outcome be for this patient with a heart rate of only 70? Huge! A simple assessment of the rhythm and patient would have caught the computer error, and another simple setting change on the computer could have corrected the heart rate.
Technology is a wonderful thing! It's amazing that we can continuously monitor multiple patient's cardiac rhythms from rooms away! But as amazing as it is, it still makes mistakes just like humans. We nurses must use our human brain power and be smarter than computers.
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