The patient's resuscitation lasts 30 minutes.The patient's electrocardiogram (ECG)shows ventricular fibrillation,and the patient has no pulse or blood pressure.What does the nurse rely on to determine when this code should end?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The nurse does not usually determine when to stop resuscitative efforts; it is the code leader,usually a healthcare provider,who stops the resuscitative efforts and pronounces the patient dead.Individual nursing units do not establish protocols for determining when to stop resuscitative measures because individual patients have specific needs that a single protocol cannot deliver; each resuscitation deserves the attention of the patient's healthcare provider to analyze the resuscitation efforts.An unresponsive patient after 30 minutes of resuscitation is not necessarily hopeless; thus time,as the only factor,does not determine whether resuscitation efforts should continue.If the administration of vasoactive drugs proves unsuccessful,the healthcare provider determines the next step.

The Patient's Resuscitation Lasts 30 Minutes