Administer Dantrolene: Prepare and administer
2.5 mg/kg dantrolene IV bolus and repeat as neces-
sary every five to 10 minutes until symptoms abate.
In addition to the step-by-step treatment guide, we
created and reviewed individual role cards, which
are color-coded according to clinical role and spell
out exactly what each member of
the response team is supposed to
do during an MH event.
Creating role cards and keeping
them with your MH cart is a safe-
guard against confusion and
missed steps. The reality of MH
training is that you can never be
100% ready when it strikes. It's so
rare that my own clinical manager
hasn't faced an event since her
sole MH experience 38 years ago.
You can drill your staff every six
weeks like clockwork, but when it
comes to the heat of the moment,
they could freeze under the pres-
sure if they've never experienced
the situation with an actual
patient. That's the beauty of having
role cards to reference when sec-
onds count. Even if your staff has
the response process memorized,
the cards give them added peace
of mind and help them stay calm
during a high-stress situation.
3. Practice
with purpose
Even the best educational materi-
als are destined to fall flat if you
don't make the training engaging
and interactive. That's where our
MH drill comes into play. After
Rob reviews all of the treatment
steps, our staff breaks into groups.
Then, they're given a scenario and
a set amount of time to list all the
treatment steps they should take
to resolve the situation. On top of
ensuring the treatment steps stick,
this approach fosters team building, organization
(each team selects a scribe to write down all of the
steps) and a healthy dose of competition. To raise
the stakes, the team that lists all the steps in the
correct order wins a small prize.
In addition to the team-based competition
D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 0 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y . N E T • 6 9
