Start reading it Kath. Sit down, take a deep breath and force yourself to read a chapter at a time. Hopefully it is just the class you are taking without the test. You probably delayed doing it because it is downright boring dry reading. You won't be the only one cramming at the last moment.

I wish there was no test, Heather, not only is there a test but there's a mock code we have to participate in. In a code at work, I've only done the recording many times, bagged a patient and done chest compressions a couple times, been a go-fer lots of times, but never did anything more than that. I'm going back to my book.

You work in a hospital? You procrastinate learning basics and cram a few days before testing such important info as advanced life support. This is a frightening scenario for those of us who may be placed in your care someday. As someone who had been in health care for years and studied long and hard to Learn not just pass tests I know cramming at last minute usually is only remembered long enough to test then info fades very quickly from memory. That is if you are normal and don't have a photographic memory. It is hard enough to remember some of the not used daily knowledge when it is needed.
Besides your work and schooling issues your are missing important happy events that enhance your life and give much joy to others. I think you should read this quick article You might want to DO IT NOW http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200308/procrastination-ten-things-know
You can find real help to stop the behavior and live a life filled with doing things in a timely manner. Please don't put it off It will not change unless you really make the effort.
LIL

Here is a link that might be useful: about procrastination

Actually, I think unless you use the info quite often you forget. We don't have codes that often so most of the info will not be used by me or most of the nurses that work on my unit. I can't even remember the last code on our unit that I was working, over 6 months ago?

No thanks on the psychology article, have little faith in what psychologists have to say. I was just griping aloud, sorry to scare you so badly, Lil.

I forgot to mention that the class is Monday, an all day class. They teach you the information in 12 hours, take the test at the end of the day. I chose to get the book early so I could look it over before the class.

I've also been a procrastinator from waaay back, Kath, so I can relate. Someone years ago did offer that she was a procrastinator & she believed that it was because "she worked best under pressure". I thought, by jove I think that's it for me too!! LOL

Getting ACLS certified was optional when I worked on a tele unit. We rarely had codes, so my thinking was that with such infrequency of using the knowledge, I sure wouldn't want to take responsibility for "running the code" just because I had the certification. Good luck with your class & the test... my understanding is that it is a doozy.

In Kathleen's defence, there is a lot in that ACLS book that one really never needs to know. Yes you need to know how to check a bag and make sure it works and now how to bag a patient, but you really don't need to know the flipping names of all of the parts that make up the bag. That is just one easy example.

Being involved with a code becomes second nature to those nurses that find themselves in jobs where they happen often. For those that have them less frequently, once a code is called, people come from all over the hospital to help out. I always found it easiest to bag/suction or do compressions. Being a gopher on a strange ward would be hard because you wouldn't know where the equipment was kept. Documenting was always hard for me because I was too short to see over peoples shoulders to see who was doing what, and my hearing isn't the best when everyone is talking. I hated being the one that got the job recording. Kudos to you Kathleen for doing the recording, that is just as important a job in an arrest.

Thanks Heather. Most of the time, the doctors come in along with ICU nurses and they take over...which is good because they have much more experience than we do. Now we have rapid response teams that we can call before we get to the point of having to code someone. That's one reason we haven't had many codes in the past couple of years.

Before, we had to hope a doctor listened to us and come see a patient that was deteriorating. Sometimes they would come and dismiss our concerns, only to have the patient die on us later. Now, the patients are taken care of and more often than not moved to another floor where they can be better monitored.

BeeOhio, one reason for me and others on my floor taking the class is bad press over the past couple years. One nurse overdosed at the hospital and another was accused of killing a patient. The local newspaper had a field day, saying we were the least educated nurses in the area. So, they've been pushing everyone to get their BSN and now ACLS. It's always good to learn new things, but if you don't use the things you learn, you will soon forget.

We had to do the ACLS every other year. I was always glad when it was over. Our class/test was only 4 hours though. They expected us to know the stuff before we went and it was really only the mock codes and the written test that we had to do.....not a class as such. Hopefully they will go over a lot of it in a review before you have to be tested.

Oh! I read Liljunkr's link, just now,,,,, having procrastinated from when I first opened this thread last evening. :-D

Actually, it pretty well convinced me that I am NOT a procrastinator. I'm am rarely late (more often, early); I meet deadlines & obligations without fail, etc. They did, however, mention the procrastinator's excuse of "working best under pressure" to which I obviously plead guilty, and the author declares it: "A LIE" to oneself. Oh, well....

Still, I don't believe that I fit the article's pathological stamp on procrastination. I hereby declare myself: "A put-er off-er". I put things off. LOL

Kath, the "rapid response team" sounds like a real help for you & your colleagues. I wish we'd have had one. I know the derision that nurses can receive from annoyed physicians. And props for your institution for pushing for more education for the nursing staff.

Kath, I wouldn't fret too much about ACLS and prep for it. When I took my first ACLS in 1986 their goal was to make it as hard as possible to really test the health care provider. They found this approach doesn't work, that people are way too anxious about failing the mega-code or test to really learn what they are teaching. ACLS is very relaxed now, at least where I am from. There are only so many things that can cause a person to code, and only so many different things to treat it.

The thing I would concentrate on are the rhythms for the test. The trickiest are the heart blocks-Mobitz I, II and complete heart block. Know A-fib. Know the reasons people can code-heart attack, trauma, hypovolemia, tension pneumo etc. Know how to use the AED.

You are exactly right in that codes are not run by just anyone. There is a code team at every hospital that is very well trained in running a code, so really just
opening the airway, checking a pulse, and possible apply defib pads is all that a floor nurse would have time to do anyway until the team arrived.

I think liljunker's comment was a bit rude because she obviously doesn't know Kathleen and all she has done and all she has accomplished in the last years. Bravo to you K and I am sure you will get through the course. Procrastination is a crime we are all guilty of and I am sure you will get it done. Considering that you are a single Mom of 2 young adults and fostering two students as well as running a home and working full time, I think we can forgive you for putting off studying for a course till the last minute.....How many of us have done that. With the goals you set for yourself and accomplished in the past few years, I am confident you will get through the course.

I think we all tend to procrastinate to some extent and it's easy to call yourself on it but to get where you are today K, I do not believe anyone could say that about you so I hope you don't let liljunker's rudeness get to you.

Thanks, Sleeperblues and Ruthie. Been reading on and off all day.

Your welcome. Let me know how it goes.

You may you will be late for your own funeral, too. But then, maybe it won't happen if you can put it off. That's the power of procrastination.

Good luck today, Kathleen!