Description:  
The first case of Covid-19 was reported in the United States on January 20, 2020.  Shortly thereafter, new cases were being reported throughout the country every day.  Frontline healthcare workers faced unprecedented risks to exposure and hospitals struggled to provide enough personal protective equipment (PPE) to safely provide patient care.  Our hospital created a COVID Task Force with the priority of creating a safe working environment for staff.  The concern that resuscitation efforts during cardiac arrest could pose a risk to staff led to a change in our traditional approach.  We implemented the use of mechanical CPR (mCPR) as a hands-off approach during resuscitation to limit staff exposure. This case-based webinar will guide you through our experience in implementation of mCPR, how evidenced-based practice improved our outcomes and led to the utilization of mCPR during Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS). Training through simulation enabled us to create a code response team, develop a new resuscitation protocol, and develop team-based education 

 

Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this activity, the participant will be able to:

1. Describe the importance of high-quality CPR

2. Discuss the range of applications of mechanical CPR in successful resuscitation during cardiac arrest

3. Describe the process to navigate resistance to change traditional practice

 

Faculty Bio:
Lisa Owen, MS, RN, CNS, CCRN is currently ECMO Specialist Team Coordinator and Critical Care Transport Team Coordinator at URMC in Rochester, NY. She has over 9 years in Cardiovascular Intensive Care nursing experience. In additional to her clinical experience, Lisa has presented numerous lectures at her facility and at national medical conferences on topics relating to critical care transport, ECMO and resuscitation.

 

Tamara Stern, MSN, RN, CRN is currently Clinical Nurse Specialist at URMC in Rochester, NY. She has nearly 20 years of clinical nursing experience primarily in cardiovascular intensive care. She has recently created a code committee to implement a new standard of care in cardiac surgery resuscitation. She is a dedicated educator and mentor.