Nina Carter
January 2020
Nina
Carter
,
BSN, RN, CEN
Bayhealth
Milford
,
DE
United States

 

 

 

I received a call from Nina; she stated that she had just received a "sketchy call" that may or may not involve CPR in progress on a pregnant patient. I asked if this was actual or suspected, what was the gestational age of the patient, etc. She was unaware due to not getting a complete report at that time. I told her I would notify the NICU and the OB team, as well as the NICU team, would come down and stage and if this wasn't a patient that required our services we could just leave, and if it was, in fact, our patient then we are there and prepared. Nina agreed. NICU and L&D staff were in the ED setting up when the actual report call came in over the radio, a 31-year-old female approximately 7 months pregnant with CPR in progress.
As the entire team of caregivers waited anxiously for patient arrival, Nina reminded everyone of their roles, requested calm, quiet voices so that other disciplines could hear and respond as needed, and confirmed that there were enough team members to care for not only what was happening for this patient but also an extremely sick 3-year-old with active seizures and a critical cardiac patient having TPA administered (this trifecta of events occurring at the same time). Nina delegated to her staff who was to be where and when they were to be there then proceeded to assist the ED provider with running code.
At the end of the code, Nina requested that all members of the care team remain in the room for a debriefing. Nina complimented everyone on their teamwork, communication, responsiveness, and overall "great effort". It takes a special nurse to possess and execute skills such as she displayed yesterday and she did it flawlessly.