The client's resuscitation lasts 30 minutes. The client's ECG shows ventricular fibrillation and the client has no pulse or blood pressure. Which does the nurse use to determine when this code should end?

Question

1. According to the nursing unit policy
2. After 30 minutes of unresponsiveness
3. When instructed by the provider to stop
4. After futile results from vasoactive drugs

Answer 1

3
3. The nurse does not usually determine when to stop resuscitative efforts because the code leader, who is usually a provider, stops the resuscitative efforts and pronounces the client dead.
1. Individual nursing units do not establish protocols for determining when to stop resuscitative measures because individual clients have specific needs a single protocol cannot deliver; each resuscitation deserves the attention of the client's provider to analyze the resuscitation efforts.
2. An unresponsive clients after 30 minutes of resuscitation is not necessarily hope-less, so time alone does not determine whether resuscitation efforts should continue.
4. If the administration of vasoactive drugs proves unsuccessful, the provider deter-mines the next step.