CPR as a volunteer in the ED?

[Premedgirl27]

I just started volunteering in the ED, and the program I volunteer for requires that the volunteers be CPR certified. I actually got to perform CPR the other day on someone who was in cardiac arrest, which surprised me. It was my first time performing CPR and I didn't know the volunteers would actually get to do this, despite our training.

Is this common for all ED volunteers, or is this unique to my hospital?

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[SnakeDoc9497]

Seems kinda dangerous and risky on the part of the hospital

 

[Premedgirl27]

Seems kinda dangerous and risky on the part of the hospital

That was my thought too, which is why I am extremely surprised we are able to do this. Cool for me! Maybe not so cool for the dying patient? Although it is a teaching hospital and the other staff members in training do the CPR as well. For example, I saw a nursing student doing CPR super slow, but the doctors just helped her and told her to speed up, lol.

 

[mimelim]

Seems kinda dangerous and risky on the part of the hospital

Why would it be risky if everyone involved was CPR certified? People give CPR on the street prior to first responders arriving, why is it dangerous to do inside the hospital with a code team right there? What exactly are you worried about happening?

I would say that it is relatively uncommon for volunteers to be required to be CPR certified, but I don't think it is exactly crazy either.

 

[Premedgirl27]

Why would it be risky if everyone involved was CPR certified? People give CPR on the street prior to first responders arriving, why is it dangerous to do inside the hospital with a code team right there? What exactly are you worried about happening?

I would say that it is relatively uncommon for volunteers to be required to be CPR certified, but I don't think it is exactly crazy either.

My original thought was that since we live in such a litigious society it might be a liability to the hospital. You have a good point, though. We do have the certification so....

I was not sure if this was commonplace or not


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[JustaDO]

To be quite honest, CPR is not rocket science, you are pushing on the chest, with a team of physicians, nurses, and techs around.

 

[osckey]

That is extremely uncommon. As a scribe in the ED, we were never allowed to touch the patient let alone conduct CPR.

 

[Bones 2020]

I had told my HUC that I got my certification, and she said "oh you'll be able to do codes then." I never took them up on it because the nurses and med students seemed excited to do them. I wasn't a volunteer for more than a couple more months anyway

 

[getdown]

I just started volunteering in the ED, and the program I volunteer for requires that the volunteers be CPR certified. I actually got to perform CPR the other day on someone who was in cardiac arrest, which surprised me. It was my first time performing CPR and I didn't know the volunteers would actually get to do this, despite our training.

Is this common for all ED volunteers, or is this unique to my hospital?

Doing CPR is a mindless activity that whoever running the code delegates to anybody. You're just doing chest compressions and theyll tell you if you're doing a bad job.

 

[takeurmeds02]

OMG, that's your personal statement. Dress it up and run with it.

 

[SnakeDoc9497]

Why would it be risky if everyone involved was CPR certified? People give CPR on the street prior to first responders arriving, why is it dangerous to do inside the hospital with a code team right there? What exactly are you worried about happening?

I would say that it is relatively uncommon for volunteers to be required to be CPR certified, but I don't think it is exactly crazy either.

Premedgirl27 beat me to it here, I was mainly referring to the liability it may pose to the hospital if things didn't turn out well. People are sue-happy these days. Obviously CPR certification is CPR certification. I can't imagine any amount of medical knowledge makes one better at it.

With that said, if an ED attending told me to step in on a code when everyone else was exhausted, I would.

 

[Gurby]

Premedgirl27 beat me to it here, I was mainly referring to the liability it may pose to the hospital if things didn't turn out well. People are sue-happy these days. Obviously CPR certification is CPR certification. I can't imagine any amount of medical knowledge makes one better at it.

With that said, if an ED attending told me to step in on a code when everyone else was exhausted, I would.

If CPR is going on, things are more than likely not going to turn out well.

 

[Cinclus]

As a volunteer, I was not supposed to even touch patients.

 

[Lost in Translation]

Now I see why everyone on here says volunteering in the ED is garbage: because you had garbage programs that didn't actually let you do anything.

 

[Ismet]

Not common but also not dangerous/risky. I'm not entirely sure if "Good Samaritan" laws apply in the hospital but I don't see why not (the laws vary by state but in general you can't be sued for providing CPR in an emergency situation, and in some states you don't even have to be certified in order to be covered by that).

There's an initiative to educate the laypublic about CPR so more people can know what to do if someone arrests in public. You're a volunteer in a hospital surrounded by a code team that will quickly correct you if you're doing compressions wrong. And good compressions are tiring, so they need to cycle through several people doing compressions. If you're there and you're certified, there's no reason not to help if needed or told to do so. It doesn't matter if you're pre-med or a nursing student or a critical care attending, you can do compressions.

 

[tantacles]

Not common but also not dangerous/risky. I'm not entirely sure if "Good Samaritan" laws apply in the hospital but I don't see why not (the laws vary by state but in general you can't be sued for providing CPR in an emergency situation, and in some states you don't even have to be certified in order to be covered by that).

There's an initiative to educate the laypublic about CPR so more people can know what to do if someone arrests in public. You're a volunteer in a hospital surrounded by a code team that will quickly correct you if you're doing compressions wrong. And good compressions are tiring, so they need to cycle through several people doing compressions. If you're there and you're certified, there's no reason not to help if needed or told to do so. It doesn't matter if you're pre-med or a nursing student or a critical care attending, you can do compressions.

I have to agree. Generally, when CPR is happening in a hospital, it's a sign that that patient probably isn't coming back. The layperson thinks of CPR as a lifesaving measure, and sometimes it is, but more often than not, it's our last ditch effort to return circulation to a patient who is almost certainly not coming back.

Well, at least on the adult side. I haven't seen a true peds code.

 

[alpinism]

Its not that common since most EDs in the US have tons of techs and nurses available.

That being said you got to have the most important job in the room...

 

[cyanide12345678]

For any long code it really helps having multiple people doing CPR. And lets face it, anyone can do CPR if they've been told how to do it once. Most other people have other important things to do, like nurses are running around starting IVs getting meds, doctors are trying to figure out the underlying cause and keeping a big picture. If anyone should ever do CPR, it should be the people least qualified to do anything else (who are useless otherwise) - usually translated into med students where I did my away rotation in the ED lol.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Probably is very hospital specific...I could see something like this happening at like a big public/county hospital more than a smaller private ED. But thats really from my rather limited experiences in these places.

I would have killed to do compressions for the personal statement value alone lol...

 

[Gurby]

Serious question.... I don't really see the personal statement value in this? Pounding somebody's chest was the defining moment of your pre-med career and reaffirmed your decision to become a doctor?

Given how many pre-meds have CNA, EMT or ED Tech jobs, I would think the fact that you've participated in a code would not be that unusual/exciting to AdComs. Am I wrong?

 

[JustaDO]

If anyone should ever do CPR, it should be the people least qualified to do anything else (who are useless otherwise) - usually translated into med students where I did my away rotation in the ED lol.

This person is 100% correct. CPR is labor heavy in terms of compression, the real work is done monitoring vitals, pushing drugs, etc, if one wants to least get in the way short of not even being in the room, the next best thing is to be compressing.

 

[LizzyM]

Serious question.... I don't really see the personal statement value in this? Pounding somebody's chest was the defining moment of your pre-med career and reaffirmed your decision to become a doctor?

Given how many pre-meds have CNA, EMT or ED Tech jobs, I would think the fact that you've participated in a code would not be that unusual/exciting to AdComs. Am I wrong?

No personal statement value in doing CPR as a EMT or a volunteer. You come off as a wanna-be hot shot who does not impress the adcom. If you take that experience and write a moving essay about life and death, the heartbreak of working and sweating to try to save someone knowing that the likelihood of success is low and you juxtaposition that with an experience of success and joy like wheeling new moms and their babies out to their cars and describe why medicine with its joys and sorrows is what you want in a career then you have something that can be part of a personal statement.

But "I did CPR and it was way cool." is not a good idea.

 

[Premedgirl27]

No personal statement value in doing CPR as a EMT or a volunteer. You come off as a wanna-be hot shot who does not impress the adcom. If you take that experience and write a moving essay about life and death, the heartbreak of working and sweating to try to save someone knowing that the likelihood of success is low and you juxtaposition that with an experience of success and joy like wheeling new moms and their babies out to their cars and describe why medicine with its joys and sorrows is what you want in a career then you have something that can be part of a personal statement.

But "I did CPR and it was way cool." is not a good idea.

Wow. Now that is some good material ! Lol.


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