Competency information
Details
Set up a cardiac monitor and monitor heart function in a range of critically ill patients, interpreting and responding to trends in physiological variables and calibrating as necessary.
Considerations
- Standard operating procedure.
- Range of equipment used, relative merits and principles of measurement, including:
- recognition of the errors or potential risks of using defective equipment in clinical practice and the implications of use
- the application of relevant troubleshooting skills
- identification of common faults and remedial action
- current safety standards, including safety testing and routine maintenance
- requirements for set-up and calibration specific to that procedure.
- Preparation of life support equipment, where appropriate.
- Electrode sites for cardiac monitoring to achieve optimum ECG waveform.
- Choice of monitor and monitor settings and rate alarm.
- How to recognise technical artefacts.
- Principles of acquiring appropriate data and converting it into information to support the diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients.
- How to minimise patient discomfort in relation to monitoring devices.
- Normal ranges and interpretation in the context of the clinical circumstances.
- Identification of abnormalities requiring urgent intervention.
- How to differentiate real change from artefact and respond appropriately.
- Cleaning and disinfection post monitoring.
- Routine maintenance.
Relevant learning outcomes
| # | Outcome |
|---|---|
| # 3 | Outcome Perform ECG monitoring, recognising and responding to trends in physiological variables. |