title: Bedside electrocardiographic assessment.
abstract: Excellence in bedside monitoring is achievable when attention to detail is practiced. The cardiovascular nurse must choose a monitoring lead to best identify dysrhythmias and a lead to best identify myocardial ischemia with ST segment monitoring. Multilead viewing is preferrable but not possible with most current systems, which provide observation of one precordial lead at a time. Above all, the nurse must first place the leads correctly on the patient's chest. A quality assurance approach that involves all levels of nursing can help to integrate current research into practice. Nursing practice can be improved when changes are linked to science.
authors.affiliation: Medical Center, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ide
mesh_terms: D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000451:nursing; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods / Q000451:nursing*; D004566:Electrodes; D006801:Humans; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000379:methods*