The first five minutes of cardiac arrest is a crucial window that can make the difference between life and death. While most cardiac arrests occur outside of the hospital, patients do sometimes experience arrest while hospitalized. First Five Minutes is MarinHealth Medical Center's new program to ensure that all medical personnel can immediately respond to a cardiac arrest, no matter where in the hospital it occurs.
In this podcast, you can learn more about Bridget Peterson, Clinical RN at MarinHealth Medical Center, who developed the program and is organizing cardiac resuscitation exercises in every department of the hospital.
First Five Minutes: An All-Hands Approach to Treating Cardiac Arrest
Featured Speaker:
coming to the fire department to take her CPR classes, Bridget knew it was time to bring that
training to every department in our hospital. She is currently working on building her Code Blue
First 5 Minutes team to continue the hospital wide cardiac arrest education program she created.
Bridget started at MarinHealth Medical Center as a nurse tech in 2001 and has worked in our ED since
2002. She loves the ED team’s camaraderie and sense of humor. A natural educator, she looks
forward to continuing to “bridge the gap between the hospital and Emergency Medical Services”
through her popular classes.
A Marin Native, Bridget was born at MarinHealth Medical Center and lives in San Rafael with her
husband and two children. She keeps her own heart healthy doing yoga and crossfit, riding
horses, and hiking the trails of Mt. Tam.
Bridget Peterson, RN
Whether she’s saving lives in the Emergency Department (ED) or teaching cardiac arrest care to paramedics, she puts the same passion, energy, and commitment into everything she does. When ED nurses startedcoming to the fire department to take her CPR classes, Bridget knew it was time to bring that
training to every department in our hospital. She is currently working on building her Code Blue
First 5 Minutes team to continue the hospital wide cardiac arrest education program she created.
Bridget started at MarinHealth Medical Center as a nurse tech in 2001 and has worked in our ED since
2002. She loves the ED team’s camaraderie and sense of humor. A natural educator, she looks
forward to continuing to “bridge the gap between the hospital and Emergency Medical Services”
through her popular classes.
A Marin Native, Bridget was born at MarinHealth Medical Center and lives in San Rafael with her
husband and two children. She keeps her own heart healthy doing yoga and crossfit, riding
horses, and hiking the trails of Mt. Tam.
Transcription:
First Five Minutes: An All-Hands Approach to Treating Cardiac Arrest
Bill Klaproth (Host): For a person who may suffer a cardiac arrest, the first five minutes is a crucial window of time. Here to talk with us about the importance of the first five minutes in cardiac arrest care is Bridget Peterson, a registered nurse at Marin General Hospital. Bridget, thanks so much for your time. We hear of people having heart attacks, but how often does a person actually go into cardiac arrest?
Bridget Peterson. RN (Guest): So, patients go into cardiac arrest in and out of the hospital. It’s kind of hard to quantify how often that happens. But, we have hundreds of cardiac arrests in Marin County each year and many of them are in the hospital.
Bill: So, that first five minutes when someone suffers a cardiac arrest, why is that so important?
Bridget: So, when a person goes into cardiac arrest, having aggressive cardiac arrest care and CPR and defibrillation or an AED is so crucial in saving a patient’s life. It increases their chance of survival. So, having a team of people right there, start CPR really helps that patient.
Bill: So, that first five minutes is really crucial, and you mentioned survival rates go up, so this is really important that that person gets attended to right away.
Bridget: Absolutely.
Bill: So, can you then tell us about the first five minutes? What’s the procedure? What are you training people on?
Bridget: So a few years ago, we started doing practice mock codes in our hospital and started running these practice times with the staff, bringing a mannequin to the floor and having the staff practice cardiac arrest care with the code blue team. What I found was the staff that were there for right when the cardiac arrest happened; needed a little more practice, needed some more hands-on time and so I developed a new program at Marin General called First Five Minutes and it’s focusing on the team that’s right there when a patient goes into cardiac arrest.
Bill: So, you are going through and training everyone at Marin General Hospital.
Bridget: Yes, so we really focus on the clinical staff, so all the different units from ER all the way up to ICU and all the different medical units all over the hospital.
Bill: So, Bridget, what is your procedure for training everyone at Marin General Hospital?
Bridget: So, the program that I am starting, we are initiating the training in August and September and we have a lot of great nurses who volunteered to be a part of the program and they are going to be First Five Minutes champions and they are going to be the ones who we train to run these trainings on a very increased regular basis throughout the hospital, practicing those crucial first five minutes of cardiac arrest care.
Bill: And what is that care? Is it basically aggressive CPR? What is that?
Bridget: Yeah so, high quality CPR is the most important thing. And also, putting pads on the patient and seeing if it is a rhythm that needs to have – so you watch those ER shows and the patient goes flatline, well, there’s also different types of rhythms that could be shocked and if the staff recognizes that, and puts the patient on the special machine to shock the patient; that and the CPR is what drastically increases their chance of survival.
Bill: So, this is for the hospital team to administer before the code blue team arrives, is that right?
Bridget: Exactly. So, in those five minutes, where the code blue team is running up to the cardiac arrest, the people that are right there are the ones administering these important interventions.
Bill: And just so we all know, what exactly is the code blue team. That’s the team that specializes in cardiac arrest?
Bridget: Yeah, so it is comprised of an ER doctor, and an ER nurse, just critical care nurses and respiratory therapist, pharmacist, a chaplain. There is a whole crew of people that come up and as a team, we continue the care of the patient with the initial responders.
Bill: So, I know you are building a code blue first five minutes team. Can you tell us about that?
Bridget: So, the first five minutes code blue team is going to be the entire clinical staff in the hospital. This is what we are working towards. Anybody needs to have these skills and every single person that works in the hospital already has American Heart Association DLS certification however, that’s a two-year certification and so we have decided we need to increase that hands-on time and have the training and hands-on practice more often than just every two years.
Bill: So, that’s amazing Bridget. So, you are taking what is normal training for a healthcare professional and you are going you know what, we are stepping it up a little bit. That’s not good enough. Everybody is going to need to know how to do this, how to do the paddles, how to do the CPR. We are going above and beyond what is normally trained.
Bridget: Yes. And it’s great. I have gotten great response from the staff. They are super enthusiastic, and I keep having staff ask for more which is kind of funny. I show up on these floors with my little cart with a mannequin and at first people used to run from me and say I don’t want anything to do with this and now they come and ask for this training. They love it. They want it. They are hungry for more.
Bill: Well it has got to offer a certain peace of mind knowing the training and knowing that boy should I ever encounter this, I’m trained, I’m ready, I know what to do before the code blue team arrives. So, that’s really got to be nice peace of mind for them.
Bridget: Absolutely.
Bill: So, in listening to you Bridget, I’m thinking for someone listening that may not be a healthcare professional; are there tips from what you are talking about for them to use should they ever encounter someone who is in cardiac arrest? Can you tell us what to do in case we are in an airport or a restaurant and God forbid, wherever something like this happens? What should we be doing?
Bridget: That’s a great question and I want people to know that they can help these patients by getting on the ground next to that patient and see if they respond and if they don’t respond, then they need to get 9-1-1 coming and the can start CPR. And CPR sounds really scary but it can actually save a patient’s life if they are the first person there to not be afraid and getting 9-1-1 there is crucial. The other thing is there are AEDs in public places and those are the little special machines that can help shock a patient out of cardiac arrest and so knowing that if you call for an AED, if you are in a public place and follow the simple instructions on there; that could really help save the patient’s life also.
Bill: So, first thing, call 9-1-1. Second thing start the CPR compressions and I know they have changed over the years. Before you had to five pumps and then blow into the mouth. They are saying forget about the mouth to mouth, just pump and pump faster and I think, and you will correct me if I am wrong, I think it was to the beat of Stayin Alive, is that right?
Bridget: It is to that and this year they actually it’s a little faster than that, but we are fine with Stayin Alive if somebody wants to stay with that. It’s a little faster than Stayin Alive now.
Bill: And then if there are more people around the individual, you should call out to somebody to look for that AED, right, because a lot of public places do have them now.
Bridget: Absolutely. And they are very simple instructions. You literally just turn it on and it tells you place the pads and follow the steps one, two, three.
Bill: Well this is really good information. And is there anything else Bridget, that we should know about people in cardiac arrest or that you want us to know about the code blue team you are building at Marin General Hospital?
Bridget: I just want to say that we have a super cohesive great team at Marin General and people are ready to dig their heels in and really work on this new project and really excited and I think it’s going to really benefit the staff and it’s going to absolutely benefit our patients.
Bill: Well, thank you Bridget for spearheading this great new procedure and training at Marin General Hospital. And thank you so much for your time today and talking with us about this. For more information, you can visit www.maringeneral.org that’s www.maringeneral.org. This is the Healing Podcast brought to you by Marin General Hospital. I’m Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.
First Five Minutes: An All-Hands Approach to Treating Cardiac Arrest
Bill Klaproth (Host): For a person who may suffer a cardiac arrest, the first five minutes is a crucial window of time. Here to talk with us about the importance of the first five minutes in cardiac arrest care is Bridget Peterson, a registered nurse at Marin General Hospital. Bridget, thanks so much for your time. We hear of people having heart attacks, but how often does a person actually go into cardiac arrest?
Bridget Peterson. RN (Guest): So, patients go into cardiac arrest in and out of the hospital. It’s kind of hard to quantify how often that happens. But, we have hundreds of cardiac arrests in Marin County each year and many of them are in the hospital.
Bill: So, that first five minutes when someone suffers a cardiac arrest, why is that so important?
Bridget: So, when a person goes into cardiac arrest, having aggressive cardiac arrest care and CPR and defibrillation or an AED is so crucial in saving a patient’s life. It increases their chance of survival. So, having a team of people right there, start CPR really helps that patient.
Bill: So, that first five minutes is really crucial, and you mentioned survival rates go up, so this is really important that that person gets attended to right away.
Bridget: Absolutely.
Bill: So, can you then tell us about the first five minutes? What’s the procedure? What are you training people on?
Bridget: So a few years ago, we started doing practice mock codes in our hospital and started running these practice times with the staff, bringing a mannequin to the floor and having the staff practice cardiac arrest care with the code blue team. What I found was the staff that were there for right when the cardiac arrest happened; needed a little more practice, needed some more hands-on time and so I developed a new program at Marin General called First Five Minutes and it’s focusing on the team that’s right there when a patient goes into cardiac arrest.
Bill: So, you are going through and training everyone at Marin General Hospital.
Bridget: Yes, so we really focus on the clinical staff, so all the different units from ER all the way up to ICU and all the different medical units all over the hospital.
Bill: So, Bridget, what is your procedure for training everyone at Marin General Hospital?
Bridget: So, the program that I am starting, we are initiating the training in August and September and we have a lot of great nurses who volunteered to be a part of the program and they are going to be First Five Minutes champions and they are going to be the ones who we train to run these trainings on a very increased regular basis throughout the hospital, practicing those crucial first five minutes of cardiac arrest care.
Bill: And what is that care? Is it basically aggressive CPR? What is that?
Bridget: Yeah so, high quality CPR is the most important thing. And also, putting pads on the patient and seeing if it is a rhythm that needs to have – so you watch those ER shows and the patient goes flatline, well, there’s also different types of rhythms that could be shocked and if the staff recognizes that, and puts the patient on the special machine to shock the patient; that and the CPR is what drastically increases their chance of survival.
Bill: So, this is for the hospital team to administer before the code blue team arrives, is that right?
Bridget: Exactly. So, in those five minutes, where the code blue team is running up to the cardiac arrest, the people that are right there are the ones administering these important interventions.
Bill: And just so we all know, what exactly is the code blue team. That’s the team that specializes in cardiac arrest?
Bridget: Yeah, so it is comprised of an ER doctor, and an ER nurse, just critical care nurses and respiratory therapist, pharmacist, a chaplain. There is a whole crew of people that come up and as a team, we continue the care of the patient with the initial responders.
Bill: So, I know you are building a code blue first five minutes team. Can you tell us about that?
Bridget: So, the first five minutes code blue team is going to be the entire clinical staff in the hospital. This is what we are working towards. Anybody needs to have these skills and every single person that works in the hospital already has American Heart Association DLS certification however, that’s a two-year certification and so we have decided we need to increase that hands-on time and have the training and hands-on practice more often than just every two years.
Bill: So, that’s amazing Bridget. So, you are taking what is normal training for a healthcare professional and you are going you know what, we are stepping it up a little bit. That’s not good enough. Everybody is going to need to know how to do this, how to do the paddles, how to do the CPR. We are going above and beyond what is normally trained.
Bridget: Yes. And it’s great. I have gotten great response from the staff. They are super enthusiastic, and I keep having staff ask for more which is kind of funny. I show up on these floors with my little cart with a mannequin and at first people used to run from me and say I don’t want anything to do with this and now they come and ask for this training. They love it. They want it. They are hungry for more.
Bill: Well it has got to offer a certain peace of mind knowing the training and knowing that boy should I ever encounter this, I’m trained, I’m ready, I know what to do before the code blue team arrives. So, that’s really got to be nice peace of mind for them.
Bridget: Absolutely.
Bill: So, in listening to you Bridget, I’m thinking for someone listening that may not be a healthcare professional; are there tips from what you are talking about for them to use should they ever encounter someone who is in cardiac arrest? Can you tell us what to do in case we are in an airport or a restaurant and God forbid, wherever something like this happens? What should we be doing?
Bridget: That’s a great question and I want people to know that they can help these patients by getting on the ground next to that patient and see if they respond and if they don’t respond, then they need to get 9-1-1 coming and the can start CPR. And CPR sounds really scary but it can actually save a patient’s life if they are the first person there to not be afraid and getting 9-1-1 there is crucial. The other thing is there are AEDs in public places and those are the little special machines that can help shock a patient out of cardiac arrest and so knowing that if you call for an AED, if you are in a public place and follow the simple instructions on there; that could really help save the patient’s life also.
Bill: So, first thing, call 9-1-1. Second thing start the CPR compressions and I know they have changed over the years. Before you had to five pumps and then blow into the mouth. They are saying forget about the mouth to mouth, just pump and pump faster and I think, and you will correct me if I am wrong, I think it was to the beat of Stayin Alive, is that right?
Bridget: It is to that and this year they actually it’s a little faster than that, but we are fine with Stayin Alive if somebody wants to stay with that. It’s a little faster than Stayin Alive now.
Bill: And then if there are more people around the individual, you should call out to somebody to look for that AED, right, because a lot of public places do have them now.
Bridget: Absolutely. And they are very simple instructions. You literally just turn it on and it tells you place the pads and follow the steps one, two, three.
Bill: Well this is really good information. And is there anything else Bridget, that we should know about people in cardiac arrest or that you want us to know about the code blue team you are building at Marin General Hospital?
Bridget: I just want to say that we have a super cohesive great team at Marin General and people are ready to dig their heels in and really work on this new project and really excited and I think it’s going to really benefit the staff and it’s going to absolutely benefit our patients.
Bill: Well, thank you Bridget for spearheading this great new procedure and training at Marin General Hospital. And thank you so much for your time today and talking with us about this. For more information, you can visit www.maringeneral.org that’s www.maringeneral.org. This is the Healing Podcast brought to you by Marin General Hospital. I’m Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.