Keeping Cardiac Arrest Patients Alive with Therapeutic Hypothermia
How to develop a successful protocol.
July, 2007
Expiration Date: December 31, 2009. No CE contact hours (CH) will be given after this date.
Purpose/goal: To provide registered nurses with information on how to care for patients receiving mild hypothermia after cardiac arrest.
Objectives
- Identify the indications for hypothermia after cardiac arrest.
- Differentiate the methods for inducing mild hypothermia.
- Recall safety issues and risks for mild therapeutic hypothermia.
- Describe the appropriate care for patients receiving hypothermia after cardiac arrest based on a protocol approach.
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Kirsten Pyle, RN, CCRN, is Critical Care Clinical Outcomes Coordinator, Quality Management; Ginger Pierson, MSN, RN, CCRN, CNS, is a Cardiovascular Clinical Nurse Specialist, Coronary Care Unit/ Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit; Deborah Lepman, BS, RN, MPH, CEN, is the Department Director, Coronary Care Unit/ Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit/Sub-Intensive Care Unit; Molly Hewett, MS, BSN, RN, CCRN, is Assistant Vice President, Neurologic Intensive Care Unit.
The authors work at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, California. Pyle has received an educational grant from Medivance for presentations on therapeutic hypothermia; the other authors do not have any financial arrangements or affiliations with any corporations offering financial support or educational grants for continuing nursing education activities.
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