This is necessary because nurses on the floor are caring for many more patients and their patients are not on a bedside monitor for them to be able to visualize immediately. A monitor tech is someone whose job is to watch many 5-lead telemetry strips at once, document, and notify the nurse as changes occur. If you’re working on a cardiac floor, typically a monitor tech in a different location will print and interpret your strips for you, and you simply verify them in your documentation and make corrections as needed. But, how this is done depends on the unit. Regardless of where the patient is, many hospitals require patients on a heart monitor to have a 5-lead strip documented every shift and with any rhythm changes or significant patient events (like a code). Normal 5 Lead ECG Levels / What is a normal ECG reading ECG techs are pretty awesome at these because they do them all day and can get them done very quickly. It’s pretty quick, and it honestly takes longer to attach all 12 leads than to get the reading. Depending on where you work, the bedside nurse may complete the 12-lead, or an ECG tech (a person whose job it is to obtain ECGs on people all day, traveling from room to room) may come to complete the procedure. So, if your patient is having new chest pain, a new cardiac rhythm, was started on a specific cardiac medication, had a procedure, is decompensating, or a plethora of other possibilities, the physician may order a 12-lead ECG. The 5-lead provides plenty of information for routine monitoring. That is a very good question! Well, that’s a lot of leads to constantly have on someone to get tangled up in, it’s incredibly expensive, and not medically necessary.

You may ask yourself: why don’t we just continuously monitor with 12 leads? Twelve cameras provide substantially more information than five. Think of each lead like a camera, taking a snapshot of the heart’s electrical activity. A 5-lead provides a lot of information, but if something concerning is noted, a 12-lead ECG is ordered to provide even more information. This means they’ve got 5 leads (wires that are connected to things that connect to adhesive pads) attached to their chest, and you can see their rhythm at all times at the nurse’s station and/or the bedside monitor.īedside nurses are responsible for monitoring these rhythms, watching for changes and notifying the physician regarding changes and concerns. Most cardiac patients are on a telemetry monitor. 5 Lead ECGīefore we dive into interpretation – let’s clarify one important thing. You may run across people who are adamant one way or the other, but it’s nothing to get your telemetry leads all twisted up 🙂 12-Lead ECG vs. You can confidently use EKG and ECG interchangeably. colour) and doesn’t not change the meaning of the abbreviation.

It’s a basic difference in spelling and language (like color vs. Well, it originates from the German spelling of electrocardiogram (elektro-kardiographie). You may be wondering where that K comes from in EKG. You’ll hear it called both and they both mean electrocardiogram. Atrial Fibrillation (A-fib) and Afib with Rapid Ventricular Response (RVR)īasically, an EKG is the exact same thing as an ECG.Premature Ventricular Contractions (PVCs).(You can skip to the section for each type by clicking on the below links) 5-Lead ECG Interpretation Tips for Nurses: What we’ll cover:

Where the heart leads read online