You need to document everything during a code arrest. All interventions, vitals and other pertinent information must be logged for various reasons. Paper and pen work but they are very difficult to audit and/or keep track of. Electronic reporting is the standard and deviating from the standard is generally a recipe for a myriad of problems.
We chart all codes on paper first and then transfer to computer when it's done. There's a nurse whose entire job is to stay in one place and document times while the rest of us work. You don't make the documenter do anything else because it's a lot of work.
And that's in the OR, where vitals are automatically captured. There just aren't enough computers to do real-time electronic documentation, and even if there were there wouldn't be enough space.
I chart codes on my EPCR, in the PT's house, almost everyday with one hand. Not joking about the one hand either.
Its easier, faster, and more accurate than writing in my experience. We have a page solely dedicated to codes and the most common interventions. Got IO? I press a button and its documented with timestamp. Pushing EPI, button press with timestamp. Dropping an I-Gel or Intubating, button press... you get the idea.
The details of the interventions can be documented later along with the narrative, but the bulk of the work was captured real-time. We can also sync with our monitors and show depth of compressions, rate of compressions and rhythms associated with the continuous chest compression style CPR we do for my agency.
Going back to paper for codes would be ludicrous for my department. The data would be shit for a start. Hand writing is often shit and made worse under the stress of screaming bystanders. Depending on whether we achieved ROSC or not would increase the likelihood of losing paper in the shuffle
The idea is to have the current system create a backup paper trail from which you practice resuming from for when computers go down. Nothing about current process for you need change only that you be familiar with falling back to paper backups when computers are down.
Which means that you have to be operating papered before the system goes down. If you aren't, the system never gets to transition because it just got CrowdStruck.
Correct. We use paper receipts for shopping and paper ballots for voting. Automation is fast and efficient, but there must be a manual fallback when power fails or automation is unreliable.
This wisdom is echoed in some religious practices that avoid complete reliance on modern technology.
