General Tips

Question 1

What should you be thinking of on your way to an RRT for one of your patients?

Answer 1

• What is the patient’s overall story and what has been your differential for those problems?
• What were the patient’s vitals/labs most recently? Did anything change?

Question 2

What do you need to assess in an RRT?

Answer 2

• First, ABCDE (airway, breathing, circulation, disability, everything else) -> if any of this is critically wrong then you must intervene.
• Second, find out who called the rapid and why.
• Third, assess the patient (exam and vitals) and decide what labs to get. Don’t be stingy on what to get -> if it might be useful then just get it.
• Fourth, assess what things you might need that you don’t have ready access to. Does this patient need pacer pads, an ET tube, pressors, blood, additional PIVs or central lines?
• Fifth, decide if you are in the right place or if the patient needs to be moved.
• Sixth, decide if other teams need to be called (e.g., anesthesia for airway, ENT for critical airway, surgery/IR for bleeding, neuro for stroke).
• Seventh, huddle with your team to assess what you’ve done, what your plan is, and if there is anything else that others can think of.

Question 3

The times you are most wrong are when ___________.

Answer 3

You’re most sure you’re right

Question 4

If your judgement tells you one thing and your test tells you another, then ______________.

Answer 4

Question the test

Question 5

Good quote: “The patient whose room you walk out of with only one thing on your differential is…

Answer 5

in trouble.”

Question 6

In patients who are tachycardic, always document __________________.

Answer 6

cap refill and extremities warm/cold