Journey North provides a great experience of living and working in a northern community. Although the nursing station there resembles any other in the country, the working conditions can be described as extremely tough. The nurses are expected to withstand an enormous amount of stress and be ready to rely on themselves when it comes to providing the initial help that is needed before the transportation of a patient. Therefore, it is of major importance to learn all the features of the workplace in order to provide locals with high-quality services duly. Myocardial infarction can be one of the most complicated cases that a nurse working in the north can encounter. Thus, Journey North has created presentations, quizzes, and a video as a part of a dedicated scenario.
In the scenario, a forty-year-old male comes to the station and complains of chest pain, nausea, vomiting, sweating, pain radiating to the jaw, and shortness of breath. The EKG monitor strip indicates that there is a risk of a heart attack. Therefore, it is of major importance to correlate the symptoms and signs with the EKG findings. The nurse is then expected to obtain a 12 lead EKG and compare the results with the previous tracing if there is any. New changes should be immediately detected, recorded, and taken into consideration. The nurse should then check for Q-waves, the elevation of ST-segment, and an inversion of T-wave, all of which point to myocardial infarction. Nevertheless, it is important to keep in mind that myocardial infarction in women does not always show the Q-waves on EKG (“Journey North,” 2020). Moreover, in this case, it is better to rely on nondiagnostic, reversible ST-segment elevations, or any T-wave abnormalities.
The nurse should then apply oxygen at 6 liters per minute and ensure that the O2 saturation is kept at 97-98%. Bed rest with the head elevated is then needed (unless hypotensive). Moreover, the nurse should assist the patient and seek to reduce the anxiety level. The nurse is also expected to draw blood or cardiac enzymes. After that, the nurse should send the EKG strip to the physician on call and contact him/her in order to find the best client management solutions and requirements for medevac (“Journey North,” 2020). After reaching a common decision, the nurse is expected to administer sublingual nitroglycerin 0.4 mg spray prn in case systolic blood pressure exceeds 100 mm Hg. The patient should then be given uncoated acetylsalicylic acid, 162-325 mg stat PO chewed, if he/she is not allergic to it. If nitrates do not relieve pain, the nurse should administer analgesia morphine and repeat the dose if directed by a physician. All the necessary arrangements for medevac should then be made. While doing so, it is important to continue monitoring heart and lung sounds to detect any signs of heart failure.
The experience provided by Journey North should be considered a truly valuable source of inspiration, as it brightly and accurately creates the atmosphere that future nurses can evaluate in order to make a weighed decision. Thus, nurses that are ready to take the challenge learn the basics of providing proper assistance prior to contacting physicians. This is crucial when a patient shows signs of severe conditions such as myocardial infarction. Nurses are expected to act immediately and courageously by taking full responsibility, as there is no time to wait for any kind of assistance in the tough conditions of the north. The myocardial infarction scenario is a useful dedicated source of information that is valuable to anyone in the nursing profession, as it provides the full guideline on how to rescue a patient almost singlehandedly.
Reference
Journey North: A virtual experience. (n.d.). Red River College of Applied Arts, Science & Technology. 2020. Web.