The novice nurse's guide to calling "code blue"

Would new graduate nurses activate rapid response teams (RRT) sooner if they learned a simple and effective decision-making model for determining hemodynamic instability? A significant number of scholarly articles report poor outcomes associated with delayed rescue interventions in the face of mental status changes preceding code blue activation. However, current RRT protocols do not stratify or give greater weight to changes in patient mental status compared with any other symptom associated with RRT activation. A decision-making model to improve the recognition of unstable patients was implemented on a cardiothoracic telemetry ward at a military medical center, resulting in an anecdotal 50% improvement in the unit's code blue survival rate. A controlled educational pilot program is needed to add scientific rigor and provide the necessary data to validate the original anecdotal findings associated with the decision-making model described in this article.