MbShea@PWP@English@UMCP

Abstract: Imagine being a brand new scribe in the emergency department and one of the most high-risk patient comes in with a cardiac arrest. As a new scribe, one can get very overwhelmed with all the treatments, the amount of people and the fast-paced environment. There are many different aspects and tasks of a cardiac arrest that a scribe must handle. This guide will help you become a good scribe even in the most stressful environment. This guide will first start off with a description of what a cardiac arrest is and why is occurs (Strayer, 2011). There are heart related causes and non-heart related causes for sudden cardiac disease (Sovari 2014). Next, the guide will go into the documentation aspect of each cardiac arrest. There is a standard which must be meet but most doctors will be looking for more than usual. During the treatments there will be drug intervention in which a scribe must know the names of and the reason for giving them. These are usually the same drugs given for each cardiac arrest and have different routes of administration (Gallimore, 2006). There will be some cases in which a patient already admitted into the emergency department has a cardiac arrest. The providers and scribes should be informed what the patient’s end-of-life care choices are (Derse, 2001). Lastly, the guide will inform scribe on how to handle family and how to deal with death themselves.


Reader’s Profile: I imagine the reader to be a new scribe who has no cardiac arrest experience. The scribe will need more information than ScribeAmerica training provides them.


Readers Response: I knew a little about cardiac arrest before being a scribe but this gave me a lot more insight. If, I follow this outline I will feel confident in giving my doctor to sign the chart. I can even ask my doctors some questions on certain topics for further detail. Since, I want to go to medical school this is a great guide on not only cardiac arrest but also about patient care and how to deal with non-medical related topics of healthcare.

R, good plan.

Will you note ways to follow up, even if only thoughtfully? Death is hard. Really hard.

Here is a discussion thread for nurses:
http://allnurses.com/cna-ma-nursing/death-do-you-177080.html

Read this commentary at a NYTimes blog, about doctors and death:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/26/doctors-and-the-d-word/?_r=0