Best Ways to Help During a Code
Are you nervous about jumping into the core code team? Late to the show? Well, here are some great ways to help outside of doing chest compressions, giving meds, and recording…
Grab the backboard from the crash cart + place it under the patient.
Backboards are UNDER utilized in codes! Most people forget it’s there. They significantly improve the effectiveness of chest compressions so, grab it and try to put it under the patient when the team puts the defibrillator pad on the patient’s back. If it’s too late for that, no worries, coordinate with the person doing chest compressions!
Page the doctor STAT and call the EKG tech, Phlebotomist, and RT to bedside.
Even though a code blue is called overhead in a hospital, the patient’s doctors are not magically notified when the code button is pressed. They could hear the announcement if they are in the building, but most of them don’t know what rooms their patients are in, given that their list is so much longer and harder to keep track of than ours.
The most important thing is giving good quality CPR to the patient, so the first few people to the room are going to be focused on that, as they should be. When you arrive, ask who the doctor(s) is for this patient and page away. Then once that page is in, go ahead and make calls to anyone we need at the bedside STAT who isn’t there yet.
Check on the nurse’s other patients + take care of their meds and call lights.
The nurse of the coding patient is tied up in the code as the “historian” for the code team and doctors. They need to stay at bedside and focus on that situation until it is fully resolved.
The BEST thing you could do for that nurse is delegate yourself tasks for all their other patients. Ideally, if you can comb the charts and MARs (Medication Administration Records) yourself, and figure out what needs to be done, this will be a HUGE help for that nurse.
Stand out of the way and LISTEN. If you hear the team say that they need something, be ready + get it fast.
Be the runner! Be ready to grab supplies, provide flushes, page additional people to bedside, get meds + labs ordered, get pharmacy on the line for STAT verifications, the list goes on! If you are able to stand nearby with a WOW (workstation on wheels), even better.
