Prophecy Healthcare(c), Inc. Launches Rhythm Interpretation Education Course

Cardiac monitor dependence in health care introduces errors and adverse events potentially avoidable by nurses properly trained on interpreting cardiac rhythm strips.


GREENSBORO, N.C., July 14, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prophecy Healthcare©, Inc. the leading provider of online healthcare competency assessments, today launched a new educational resource, Foundations of Rhythm Interpretation, into their extensive library of assessments and learning modules. Made available to healthcare organizations, the module aids in education and remediation efforts focused on combating the lost art of cardiac rhythm interpretation to detect technological malfunctions.

"While alarm fatigue has gained substantial attention over the last few years, monitor dependence, or relying solely on technology, is nearly as detrimental to patient safety," commented Felicia Sadler, MJ BSN RN CPHQ, Vice President of Quality & Performance. "The same technology believed to improve healthcare efficiency, quality and safety, such as the electrocardiogram, can introduce errors and adverse events when improperly interpreted."

Before extensive application of technology, nurses relied heavily on their senses of sight, touch, smell, and hearing to evaluate patient status and detect changes. Over time, technology has replaced the nurses' unaided senses as a more trusted option to accurately detect changes in patient conditions. This paradigm shift has dramatically reduced the number of nurses who exude confidence in interpreting rhythm strips, without technological assistance, causing a substantial void during technological malfunctions.

Prophecy's new education module is designed to provide health care providers a refresher course on cardiac Rhythm Interpretation. After successful completion of the Foundations of Rhythm Interpretation module test takers will be able to:


  • Identify the basic components of the electrical conduction system
  • Identify and correlate the electrical conduction system to the cardiac cycle
  • Describe at least 2 ways to properly measure rhythms
  • Analyze and accurately interpret basic cardiac rhythms presented
      - Sinus Rhythms
       - Atrial Rhythms
       - Ventricular Rhythms
       - Heart Blocks
       - Paced Rhythms

"Our validated competency assessments have offered clients the ability to confidently assess a nurse's skills in interpreting and measuring rhythms for years.  Now we've provided a tool to help clients fill in those knowledge gaps in efforts to improve patient safety and positive patient outcomes," explained Ron Gonzalez MS BSN, Founder & CEO.

Adding this module assists health care organizations two-fold: first in remediation efforts of staff whose assessment scores display lower levels of accuracy in interpretation, and secondly supplying nurse educators with a trusted resource for incumbent staff education initiatives.

About Prophecy Healthcare©, Inc.

Originally founded in 2004 as NurseTesting.com, Prophecy got its start as the first online Pre-Employment Testing Company exclusive to the Healthcare Industry. Initially focusing solely on clinical assessments measuring clinical competencies, efforts to exceed industry expectations led to isolating critical competencies missed in traditional testing initiatives, such as stress tolerance, critical thinking, and teamwork skills. The Prophecy approach offers the ability to find candidates with the clinical hard skills, personality attributes, and desired soft skills to match each organization. Prophecy clients also improve bench strength of existing staff by utilizing assessments for professional development, annual competencies, learning needs assessments and risk management.

For more information about Prophecy, visit www.prophecyhealth.com or call 336.802.1070.  Follow our official Twitter handle: @Prophecy_Health.


            

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