Pediatric Crisis -Mastering Rapid Assessment Skills & Unique Treatment Challenges – Robin Gilbert

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• Mock Code Blue: Know What to Do
• Critical Lab Values & Blood Gases: The Underlying Issues
• Risky Business: Street Drugs & Thugs
• Pediatric Sedation: Medications & Complications
• Early Clues for Respiratory Distress & Failure
• Fever, Pain, & Skin Rash: How Sick is This Child?

You are caring for a child who presents with severe dyspnea, stridor, retractions, and cyanosis following a snack at daycare. On the monitor, the child’s heartrate is decreasing and oxygen saturations are dropping. His mental status is quickly deteriorating. The physician chooses to intubate. What size ET tube do you anticipate for this child? IV access is not obtainable and the decision is made to start an Intraosseous (IO). You are not sure if you have an IO on your code cart – and you have never used one. The physician orders epinephrine 0.01mg/kg IO. Epinephrine is given, the child develops ventricular tachycardia. Now what…?

This high-anxiety situation just became your worst nightmare. Nothing increases YOUR heartrate more than the pediatric patient who suddenly decompensates. What are your biggest concerns: Calculating the medication dose in a code situation? Managing the airway? Missing the subtle signs that lead to the need for a rapid response? Children have unique differences that require additional assessment skills and interventions. Become confident in your assessment skills and be prepared to handle emergent situations. You will have time to practice mock rapid response scenarios, use Broselow tape, calculate/draw up medications, and review airway management tools. Robin Gilbert, MSN, RN, CEN, CPEN, will teach you strategies to recognize and stabilize life-threatening emergencies that take place in the pediatric population.