title: Focused nurse-defibrillation training: a simple and cost-effective strategy to improve survival from in-hospital cardiac arrest.
abstract: Time to first defibrillation is widely accepted to correlate closely with survival and recovery of neurological function after cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia. Focused training of a cadre of nurses to defibrillate on their own initiative may significantly decrease time to first defibrillation in cases of in-hospital cardiac arrest outside of critical care units. Such a program may be the best single strategy to improve in-hospital survival, simply and at reasonable cost.
authors.affiliation: Cascade Healthcare Services, Seattle, Washington, USA. jastewart325@gmail.com
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Stewart
mesh_terms: D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004554:Electric Countershock; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000451:nursing / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education*; D013534:Survival