“Patient outcomes during crisis events directly link to healthcare providers’ swift and appropriate actions, with nurses often the first responders to crisis events within the hospital. Crisis events, such as rapid responses and cardiac arrests, can prompt staff fear and anxiety regardless of years of professional experience, leading to hesitation and low self-confidence in decision-making. To optimize patient outcomes in crisis events, nursing staff should identify a decompensating patient quickly and begin competently performing resuscitation tasks. Previous mock code studies have found alarming delays in resuscitation tasks and overall poor performance; recommendations often discuss the need to focus on the first responders and the tasks being completed before the code team’s arrival Thus, the most critical period of the resuscitation process is left in the hands of nursing staff as first responders.

Bennett, J., et al (2021). Optimizing Nursing Response to Crisis Events through In-Situ Simulation. Medsurg Nursing, 30(2), 108-114.