Contents Page Page Abstract 1 Section 1– Correct lead placement 2 Section 2 - Incorrect lead placement 5 Section 3 – Conclusion and recommendations 7 References Appendices Abstract Recording an electrocardiogram or ECG, is a procedure which is performed daily all over the United Kingdom by thousands of healthcare workers and in particular nurses (Jacobson, 2000). The way in which this procedure is performed varies from geographical location to location and occasionally even more so, between staff on the same ward (Amos, 2000). This reason stated by Amos (2000), formed the basis of my decision to choose this topic. The recording of an ECG is often seen as a fairly mundane, routine …show more content…
The patient's ankles also need to be exposed at this point. In addition it is suggested that Nurses need also to remember to keep the patient's lower half covered as much as possible and treat the patient with the utmost respect at all times (Dougherty and Mallet, 2000). If using a machine equipped with metallic stickers, it is important that the nurse wipes the patient's skin with an alcoholic swab before applying, to ensure good electrical contact is made as this according to Ford (2002) will save time in the long run. If the machine is supplied with the suction cups, then electrode spray must be applied to the areas of skin and where electrodes will be placed. Men with very hairy chests may require a gel based electrodes for adhesion, or in extreme cases, shaving may be needed. Lewes (1965) publish an paper stating that ketchup, mayonnaise and K-Y jelly all were as good as hospital adhesion gels, based on performance, however as Cowley (2002) points out, it is considered somewhat strange and not seen as best practice to cover your patient in ketchup or mayonnaise prior to recording an ECG. Finally, ensure that the patient is supine on a bed, comfortable and relaxed. Cowley (2002) describes how accurate chest lead placement is essential for ensuring quality ECG output, as any misplaced leads may result in a change in ECG waveform, in turn this may cause the ECG trace to be misinterpreted. The full pictorial description
The EKG Technician is the person responsible for performing diagnostic tests to access the heart rhythm and rate in patients. EKG technician is an integral part of the management of patients with heart disease. The EKG Technician may also clean equipment, maintain and process data reports. The course will prepare students with the theory, academics and clinical education necessary to function as an entry level EKG technician. This course may be taken as a module toward completion of the PCT program, or it may be taken independently as an individual skills course. The course structure will consist of introduction to EKG, applied EKG and clinical EKG.
A full examination was done by the nurse practitioner from head to toe with a bed side ECG and
EKG is an electrocardiogram, a machine used to check on problems with your electrical activity with your heart. An electrocardiogram machine translates the heart’s electrical pattern into lines that specific professionals can read it. The first EKG was made by Willem Einthoven, a Dutch Java island (now called Indonesia) born citizen. Willem was born the 21st day of May 1860. His father, Jacob Einthoven, was born and educated in Groningen (Netherlands). His father was also
Parker included collecting cues in 12-lead ECG, blood pressure, potassium level, sodium level, the warmth of hands and feet and pain score (Corrales-Medina et al., 2012). Also, the process involved identifying the risk factors associated with the patient's condition. From the immediate assessment, it included weight, smoking history, history of depression and family history of cardiac conditions (Corrales-Medina et al., 2012). One evening, Mr. Parker slumped on the bed; I monitored the continuous cardiac monitor to determine his heart rhythm. Based on current information, the T wave on the ECG indicated that the ventricles are repolarising (Levett-Jones et al., 2010).
Continuous cardiac monitoring remains the gold standard for arrhythmia detection, we would keep Mrs. Lee on continuous monitoring to provide complete uninterrupted arrhythmia monitoring of her rate and rhythm (Andrade et al,2015).
Some hospitals almost never ordered an ECG, and others almost 100 percent of the time ordered an ECG,” in average it was
They use their laptops to perform an EKG. I found an article about this type of EKGs and it’s called PC-based ECGs (WelchAllyn, 2015). They hook the patient up with the ten leads and at the opposite end of the leads is a USB port that they plug into the computer. Once they are hooked up they click on the order that is in the patient chart on the EMR and perform the reading. When I saw this I thought it was pretty neat, until the clinic EMR was down for four days. During the computer downtime we couldn’t do any EKGS. If it was an emergency the patient would have had to go to the emergency room. One good thing I can think of by them using this type of system for EKG is the reading is automatically saved in the patient
Throughout the day you will have different reports print. These reports must be three hole punch and put in the patients chart. EKG’s are priority on a cardiac floor, always file those first. The cardiologist makes rounds to see their patients throughout the day and, they will want to see the most recent EKG. If you are covering two floors you must prioritize your work load and finish everything correctly on each
Some important concerns when placing ECG electrodes on a patient are making sure the patient does not have long thick hair where the electrode needs to go. If there is hair, it needs to be shaved in that area. Also if the patient is oily or wet, they should be cleaned and dried off before electrodes are placed on the body. It is important that the ECG leads are placed correctly because you need to get the correct result from the leads. The consequences of incorrect placements are that you can get the wrong results. By not putting the electrodes in the right place, it can completely throw off the right result which can cause doctors to not worry when they should. The medical assistant can take steps to ensure the ECG reading accurate by going
Cardiac dysrhythmias come in different degrees of severity. There are heart conditions that you are able to live with and manage on a daily basis and those that require immediate attention. Atrial Fibrillation is one of the more frequently seen types of dysrhythmias (NIH, 2011). The best way to diagnosis a heart condition is by reading a cardiac strip (Ignatavicius &Workman, 2013). Cardiac strips play an chief part in the nursing world allowing the nurse and other trained medical professionals to interpret what the heart is doing. In a normal strip, one can clearly identify a P wave before every QRS complex, which is then followed by a T wave; in Atrial Fibrillation, the Sinoatrial node fires irregularly causing there to be no clear P
Being knowledgeable about the heart is very important, especially if one is an athlete. This experiment is significant, because it can tell us how important it is for one to keep their heart healthy. It will also tell us how playing a sport can benefit one’s health and the well being of their heart. Our hypothesis says, if the athleticism of a person increases, then the heart rate recovery time will decrease when heart rate recovery in a function of athleticism. The purpose of this project is to see which type of athlete, or non-athlete has the best heart function.
Blood vessel length, when increased causes more friction or resistance thus making it more difficult for blood to flow through the vessel. In summation, increasing blood vessel length inversely effects flow rate but decreasing flow rate. My prediction was that an increase in blood vessel length would inversely effect blood flow. As evidenced in this experiment, with the increase of the blood vessel length, there was a decrease in blood flow.
As I was placed in an acute surgical ward in a hospital for my first semester placement, I have practiced this principle throughout my work by taking control and understanding a patient’s dignity and privacy. When admitting a patient in triage, one of the questions in the documentation of the process of admission is about the skin. This involves ensuring there is no broken skin or pressure sores for example. As elderly people and people in wheelchairs are more prone to getting pressure sores or skin breaks on their bottom, it is a nurse’s duty of care
The prevalence of abnormal preoperative screening ECG results have been estimated to be anywhere between 25% to 50%; the clinical implications of abnormal ECG findings is less clear, however, in that a change in management was observed in 0% to 2.2% of patients (Gold 1992, Munro 1997). So, at present there is no consensus regarding the need for a routine 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) preoperatively on all general admission in adult patients (Sharma et al 2014, Rusk 2016 ). In different countries, the practice of obtaining preoperative ECG in adult patients undergoing surgery is different. In my country, there are no guidelines by the national cardiology society and anesthesia society on the need of preoperative ECG and different hospitals even in the same city have different practice of obtaining ECG in the preoperative workup of surgical patients. To answer this clinical question, PICO format question was developed for literature search. In the PICO , P: stands for patient problem, I: for intervention, C: for comparison or control and O: for
The cardiac cycle describes the coordinated and rhythmic series of muscular contractions associated with the normal heart beat.