Every second counts: innovations to increase timely defibrillation rates.

Meredith Borak1, Mary Ann Francisco, Mary Ann Stokas

  • 1Rescue Care and Resiliency (Ms Borak), Center for Nursing Professional Practice and Research (Mss Francisco, Stokas, Maroney, and Bednar and Dr Pakieser-Reed), and Department of General Surgery (Dr Miller), The University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, Illinois.

Summary

Early defibrillation is crucial for cardiac arrest survival. Implementing a quality consultant, nursing education, and standardized equipment significantly increased automated external defibrillator use by nurses in noncritical areas.

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