Nurses have many roles and responsibilities in relation to cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), including: recognising that a patient is deteriorating; recognising cardiac arrest and commencing CPR while waiting for the resuscitation team to arrive; ensuring the contents of the resuscitation trolley are present, in date and in full working order; and completing documentation for the National Cardiac Arrest Audit in participating healthcare organisations. Many patient safety incidents involving resuscitation trolley equipment and resuscitation have been reported, and predominantly relate to a lack of equipment, missing equipment and inadequately stocked trolleys. This article provides an overview of the contents of the standard resuscitation trolley and a rationale for the use of each item. It discusses the importance of checking and restocking the resuscitation trolley, as well as the documentation of CPR efforts.
Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2017.e10461
Correspondence Peer reviewThis article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software
Received: 15 February 2016
Accepted: 22 September 2016
Published online: 30 January 2017
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