Inhospital cardiac arrest: pre-event variables and nursing response

This retrospective study examined the medical records of 100 patients who experienced an in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest. The purposes of this study were to identify pre-arrest physiologic changes that may have occurred in the patient and to determine whether physician notification time, physiologic variables, patient location, and the presence of an electrocardiogram (ECG) monitor before the arrest affected the resuscitation outcome. The results showed that assessment variances were present in most patients before the arrest and also were recognized by the nursing staff. Implications for practice include formation of quality improvement screening tools to assess the patient's pre-arrest status, development of competency tests that include scenarios involving changes in a patient's physiologic parameters, staff education, and evaluation of current nursing policies for obtaining vital signs and assessments.