Ongoing Education of Acute and Long-Term Care Nurses on Cardiac Rhythm Interpretation

¶ … practicum experience is the need of ongoing education of acute and long-Term care nurses on cardiac rhythm interpretation.

Ongoing education for nurses is essential to ensure high-quality patient care. "For professional nurses, continuing education is essential to safe and effective nursing care. The amount of knowledge required to take care of critically ill patients cannot be obtained simply through experience on the unit or at the bedside" (Witt 2011). Anecdotal knowledge must be informed with evidence-based practice that can only be learned in the classroom. In particular, cardiac rhythm interpretation requires a great deal of sensitivity and knowledge of current best practices.

Most hospitals offer continuing education in this specific field. An example of a description of such a course is as follows: "Basic Arrhythmia Cardiac Rhythm Interpretation (BACRI) class is a non-consecutive two-day course designed to prepare nurses and other select staff of VUH to recognize cardiac arrhythmias. Basic electrophysiology concepts are reviewed, and specific complexes, waves, and intervals are detailed. Sinus, atrial, junctional, and ventricular arrhythmias and blocks are discussed. Hemodynamic effects and treatments also are presented" ("Basic arrhythmia," 2014). Education in arrhythmia is not something that can be assumed to be complete simply because a nurse has obtained her license. Moreover, there is a great deal of discipline-specific knowledge that pertains to arrhythmia. "A Neuro ICU nurse may have grown more accustomed to depending on bedside cardiac monitors and alarms since their specialty lies in neurology. A Progressive Care nurse, on the other hand, deals with dysrhythmias on a frequent basis and should be more alert to quickly interpret and evaluate arrhythmias" (Juengel 2012).

However, there are certain constants in the treatments of arrhythmias: "regardless of the specialty, correct identification and treatment of dysrhythmias are a key component to safe patient care. Incorrect identification could lead to irreversible damage and potential fatalities -- unanimously, the worst outcome of medical errors" (Juengel 2012). Given the nurse's critical role as a patient educator, it is essential that she identify the type of irregularity that is occurring, prescribe the correct treatment, and also work with the patient's specific physical, psychological, spiritual, and social conditions to remedy the issues.