Nursing Assignment: Code Blue Video Analysis and ARC Guidelines

This assignment analyzes a 'Code Blue' video, which depicts a critical care scenario involving a 37-year-old patient, Mr. Smith, admitted for pancreatitis. The report meticulously reviews the actions of the multi-dimensional healthcare team, identifying both positive and negative aspects of their response to the patient's unresponsiveness. The analysis is structured around the Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC) guidelines, with specific actions within the video assessed for compliance. Several areas of concern are highlighted, including delays in initiating emergency protocols, improper airway management, and interruptions in chest compressions. The report also acknowledges positive aspects of the care, such as clear communication and prompt removal of head rails. Furthermore, the report cites relevant literature to support its findings and recommendations, emphasizing the importance of adherence to established guidelines for optimal patient outcomes. Finally, the report evaluates instances where negative actions produced positive outcomes, such as the nurse's ability to seek clarification and improve the overall critical care process.

Running head: BACHELOR NURSING ASSIGNMENT
BACHELOR NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Complex nursing care is the process which is applied for the patient suffering from severe
health conditions and involves application of professional guidance and leading standards further
it also requires day to day supervision of the processes and therefore it requires a multi-
dimensional supervision team so that overall care of the patient can be achieved (Morton et al.,
2017). The multi-dimensional team should involve occupational therapists, physiologists,
sociologists, geriatric nurses, skilled auxiliary professionals, skilled speech therapists and further
qualified and trained nurse so that all these clinical assessment related to the severe patient
condition can be done without any adverse health outcome (Barr et al., 2013). In the nursing
program, complex nursing care is an important aspect that helps to determine the untrained
nurses are able to understand the processes and their positive or negative implications so that
while practicing they can implement those processes in their regular practice. In this assignment,
a video of a complex care session named “code blue” will be reviewed and all the positive and
negative steps taken by the multi-dimensional healthcare team in the setting will be assessed.
Further with reference to the Australian Resuscitation Council (ARC), the compliance of the
taken steps of the video with the guideline will be assessed and will be supported with recent
literature evidences.
The assignment is based on a video, named “Code Blue”, 4 to 5 healthcare professionals
are seen to provide critical or complex care to a patient, Mr. Smith. He is a 37 year old patient
and was admitted to hospital due to the concern of pancreatitis a couple of days ago. This
approximately 14 min long video provides a detailed structure of the plan of care the multi-
dimensional team arranged for Mr. Smith after he was found senseless in morning. This plan of
care includes several positive and negative points. The video starts and within 30 seconds, the
nurse Tammy found that Mr. Smith is not responding and hence she calls for another helper to

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help her assessing patient and ask her to call code blue. However, instead of pressing the
emergency button for code blue, the nurse ask another helper to call the code blue. Tis step had a
negative implication on the care process as wasted some precious time of the patient care. De Mu
et al., (2012) also mentioned in their article that, in emergency situation, nurses should press the
emergency button so that multi-dimensional tem can reach to the emergency room without any
delay. Secondly, while checking the breathing of the patient, the nurse did not went to close of
his mouth, where the height of the bed was extremely low. Further as per mentioned in the ARC
Guidelines (4), the patients head was not tilted or chinned up so that any obstruction in the
airway can be minimized or removed. Parasarn et al., (2014) and Higginson and Parry (2013)
included the evidences in which, in emergency patient condition, to manage and clear the airway
in the patients, ‘tilting head’ and chin lift is an important step that helps to clear the airway of the
patient.
The third negative point which was noticed was At 2:01 minutes when the nurse applied
the pads to provide shock to the patient, however, at that time, no one provided compression to
the patient. It should be noted that according to the ARC guidelines (6), interruption while
providing compression should be minimized as longer gaps can lead to deleterious health
outcomes and the patient’s unresponsiveness can be increased. Therefore, while implementing
the pads as well, the healthcare workers should provide compression to the patient so that oxygen
saturation within the patient can be increased. Evidences from recent literatures such as Stiell et
al., (2012) determined that longer CPD related resuscitation is important for patient’s
unresponsive heart to pump more blood throughout the body and maintain normal pulse rate.
Kleinman et al., (2015) and Perkins et al., (2015) supported the evidence.

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After that, 2:11 minutes, the code captain Dr. Salinger enters the room and without asking for the
patient assessment data, first ask the nurse to stop the compression and provide a shock of 150
joules. Further, after delivering 150 joules shock, he asked the nurses to administer epinephrine 1
mg IV push intravenously. According to the ARC guidelines section 2, the healthcare
professional first quickly go through the patient assessment related data so that prior to
suggesting any medicine for the patient, his allergies, last critical symptoms, last eaten meal and
so can be understood. This is an important step as without this, if the doctor suggests the nurses
to administer any medication and if the medication had any adverse effect on the patient’s health,
then the critical situation of the patient care would become more critical. This situation is also
supported by several recent literatures such as Kim and Bates (2013), Baguley et al., (2013) and
Marengoni and Onder (2015) has defined that patient assessment is the primary step of
healthcare interventions and depending on the data collected from patient assessment the further
interventions for patient improvement are included in the process. The doctor asked about the
patient condition and assessment report at 3:41 minutes of the video which is too late for asking
patient condition. The nurses present in the ward should have been provided him with the patient
assessment data earlier. Further, one biggest loophole in the care process was noticed related to
the compression process. IT was noticed that there were 4 5 nurses present in the ward, however
they were scattered and did not lined up in a queue so that one after another the care process can
continue. Therefore, maximum nurses were doing compression wrongly and therefore at 6:44
minutes, the video showed a nurse being completely tired and drained in the compression
process. Further, after the change the compression process took a speed which was not
appropriate as the rules and guidelines of providing compression, as per the Arc guidelines
section 6. Johnson et al., (2017), Barnes et al., (2013) and Leung & Chow, (2012) also

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determined that nurses should form a queue and provide compression in a rhythmic manner so
that appropriate cardiac output can be generated. Therefore, these above mentioned points were
the negative points observed in the Code Blue video and was aligned with the ARC guidelines
and backed with recent evidence based literature articles (Australian Resuscitation Council,
2018).
Besides the negative aspects present in the critical care process, while treating Mr. Smith
and his unresponsiveness, there were several steps that had positive implication on the care
process. The first positive point was spreading the news of patients unresponsiveness so that
everyone nearby becomes alert. Lind et al., (2012), mentioned that this attitude of nurses are able
to save several lives and improve patient condition. It was also mentioned in the ARC guidelines
1.1 that after watching any serious signs, the nurses should ask for senior nurses or healthcare
professionals help. Further, the nurse delivering the shock at 150 joules was very clear and
announced that clearly to everyone. This is also an important aspect as while providing care
healthcare professionals should be alert and loud so that complete focus can be implemented.
Thirdly, the nurses removed the head rail at the primary stage of the critical care process that
helped the nurses to clear the airway. Other helping staff such as the social care worker was
aware of their roles and they inform the patient’s family related to the process. Besides these,
other steps such as doctor’s assessment related to the ECG rhythm and after identification,
delivering shock if the same rhythm and putting on sliding pad at start of medical intervention
were also a positive implication of ARC guideline related rules, of which references can be
found in recent literatures. These positive sections of the critical care unit was determined from
the video determined that despite several negative actions, the critical care operation was carried
out successfully in the Code Blue video.

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Besides positive and negative point, there were several sections in the critical care unit
that can be determined as a negative point of critical care process, however exerted a positive
outcome in the patient assessment. These will be assessed in this next section. Firstly, while
implementing the oxygen cylinder the nurses were not being able to make a sealed airway this
was a negative point, as depending on the ARC related guidelines it is important for the airway
mouth piece to be properly fit onto the face of the patient (Australian Resuscitation Council,
2018). Peters, Holets & Gay, (2013); Schwabbauer et al., (2014) also mentioned that it is
important for the oxygen mouthpiece to be properly fit onto the mouth of the patient so that
while compression continuous and proper amount of oxygen can be provided to the patient.
However, in that situation the nurse used her active thinking ability and asked another nurse to
hold the mouthpiece of the oxygen mask so that the oxygen can properly compelled in the mouth
of the patient. Balas et al., (2012) has also mentioned such activity in the study where nurses
holded the mouth piece of the patient so that air way can be maintained. The second negative but
negative point in the critical care process observed from the code blue video was the assessment
recorder nurses inability to recognize the name of the drug and the processes name. It has been
observed from that video that in two stations, the nurse recording the details and data of code
blue activities, the nurse was unable to recognize the name of the defibrillation process and
recognized it as cardioversion process (5:32 min) as well as the drug amiodarone 300 mg IV
push and asked the nurse injecting the drug into the patient body. These are negative points as
the nurse was not trained or capable enough to recognize the name of the drugs or processes used
in the critical care process (Hodgson et al., 2014). According to the ARC guidelines section 4 it
is important for the nursing professionals to understand the process and collect accurate data so
that further interventions can be carried out (Australian Resuscitation Council, 2018). However

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the positive aspect of this point was the nurse’s ability to make any doubt clear instead of noting
down wrong or fake data. This is also an important aspect of care which determine that instead of
implementing any doubtful step the nurses should always clear their doubt so that proper and
accurate steps related to the critical care interventions can be implemented in the patient care.
Therefore, from the provided video of the code blue, all these positive, negative and negative but
positive interventional points were identified (Lee et al., 2017)
While concluding the assignment, it should be mentioned that critical care nursing
process or complex care process is a crucial situation in which the healthcare interventions
demand complete determination and activity of the healthcare facilities. In the bachelor nursing
programs this aspect of the student related to their activity and determination is assessed by
providing them with a patient so that their ability to deal with critical situation can be assessed.
In this assignment, a video of Code Blue having a patient Mr. Smith was assessed and the
unresponsiveness related condition was managed by the crucial care intervention. The primary
focus of this assignment was observing the critical care process handles by the code blue team
and point out their negative, positive and negative but positive points complied with the ARC
guidelines. This was done as the ARC guidelines section 1.1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 10.6 was found to be
met or unmet in the assignment. Further using evidence from recent literatures the authenticity of
the recommendations were provided.

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References
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