Emergency Drugs and Equipment | Crash Cart
Introduction
This section introduces the topic of emergency drugs and equipment.
Emergency Drugs and Equipment
- Emergency drugs are used to prevent a patient from deteriorating to an arrest situation.
- Medical devices allow healthcare personnel to more accurately monitor patient health and help doctors perform various functions in the emergency room.
- A crash cart is a multi-draw wheeled cabinet with essential medication and equipment required in emergency situations.
- The contents and organization of crash carts may vary, but they should be readily available in any environment where a patient may unexpectedly experience a medical emergency.
Lesson 4: Emergency Drugs and Equipment
This section provides an overview of lesson 4 on emergency drugs and equipment.
Crash Cart Indications
- The crashed cart is used for compromised airway, respiratory distress/arrest, cardiac arrest/abnormal cardiac rhythm, drug overdose, hypoglycemia, anaphylactic reaction.
- The purposes of the crashed cart are to provide immediate access to supplies and medications, facilitate coordination of emergency equipment, ensure properly stocked crash cards will be readily available, ensure the properly functioning defibrillator will be readily available, save valuable time at the time of emergency.
Contents of Crash Cart
Top Shelf
- Defibrillator with monitor
- Spo2 probe
- ECG strips
- Oxygen supply
Drawers
Drawer 1 - Medication Drawer
Medications are usually kept in the top drawer of most crash carts. These need to be accessed and delivered as quickly as possible in emergent situations; therefore they need to be available to providers very easily. The common set of first draw medications includes:
- Amiodarone
- Atropine
- Epinephrine
- Lidocaine
- Sodium bicarbonate
Drawer 2 - Airway Management Drawer
This drawer contains most of the materials necessary to perform intubation, including:
- Airways oral with assorted sizes
- Airways nasal trumpet with assorted sizes
- Intubation tray
- Laryngoscopes non-disposable and disposable with blades
- Ky jelly
- 10 cc syringes stylet tape batteries et tubes with the following sizes 3.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 yank or suction
Drawer 3 - Circulation Venipuncture Tubes and Equipment
Drawer 4 - Circulation IV Solutions and Tubing
Drawer 5 - Special Procedure Trays
Drug Study of Medications
The drug study of the medications is provided on your module.
Conclusion
This section concludes the topic of emergency drugs and equipment by summarizing key points.
Key Points
- Emergency drugs are used to prevent a patient from deteriorating to an arrest situation.
- Medical devices allow healthcare personnel to more accurately monitor patient health and help doctors perform various functions in the emergency room.
- A crash cart is a multi-draw wheeled cabinet with essential medication and equipment required in emergency situations.
- The contents and organization of crash carts may vary, but they should be readily available in any environment where a patient may unexpectedly experience a medical emergency.
- The crashed cart is used for compromised airway, respiratory distress/arrest, cardiac arrest/abnormal cardiac rhythm, drug overdose, hypoglycemia, anaphylactic reaction.
- The purposes of the crashed cart are to provide immediate access to supplies and medications, facilitate coordination of emergency equipment, ensure properly stocked crash cards will be readily available, ensure the properly functioning defibrillator will be readily available, save valuable time at the time of emergency.
- Crash carts have different parts such as top shelf, drawers, and medication drawer.
- The common set of first draw medications includes amiodarone, atropine, epinephrine, lidocaine, and sodium bicarbonate.
Emergency Equipment and Crash Cart
This section discusses the equipment and supplies needed for emergency situations, as well as the importance of maintaining a crash cart.
Equipment and Supplies
- Butterflies, three-way stopcock, assorted needles, betadine swabs, alcohol swabs, saline locks, lidocaine topical solution, radial artery catheterization set, tape electrodes, BP cuff with stethoscope, assorted sterile gloves
- Packages of defer related pads
- Nasogastric tube, 60 milliliters syringe and logs
- Intravenous solutions such as D5 water LRS NSS in 1000 milliliters each; D5 water NSS in 500 milliliters each; NSS in 100 milliliter; butamine dopamine tubing such as micro drips (60 drops per milliliter), macro drips (15 drops per milliliter)
- Special procedure trays including tracheostomy tray transvenous packing electrode kit bag valve mask adult and pediatric suction setup portable cart ecg electrodes sterile gloves of various sizes sutures of various sizes and materials salum pump cricothyroidotomy kit adult and pediatric cut down pack large
- Bone needle and syringe for tension pneumothorax lumbar puncture kit
Maintenance of Crash Cart
- It is important to regularly check the contents of the crash cart to ensure that all equipment is present when needed.
- A maintenance routine should be completed at least monthly, including checking expiration dates on medications and replacing expired medication promptly. The defibrillation pads and battery charge on the monitor or automated external defibrillator should also be checked and documented.
Conclusion
This section concludes the transcript.
- Thank you for listening. Have a good day and be safe.