Mattie Jendresen, RN, finished nursing school in December 2021, and was in orientation at the hospital in Burley, Idaho, when she visited the patient who was in the medical/surgical unit for a non heart-related concern.
Upon entering the patient’s room, she hooked him up to the monitor to assess his levels.
“I went to do my original assessment—checking his pulse, listening to his heart, and I noticed his pulse wasn’t good,” Mattie says. “In listening to his heart, it was kind of irregular sounding.”
The monitor also showed an irregular heart rate, leading Mattie to quickly ask her charge nurse, Saedee Moss, RN, to come into the room to verify what she was seeing.
“Saedee also listened, did an assessment of her own, and took his pulse,” Mattie says. “She agreed the numbers were low and we needed to probably get an EKG because she felt like something was wrong as well.”
“We had this patient a couple of times before, and I knew he had previous EKGs,” Saedee says. “I pulled up one, and this was a complete rhythm change from his normal one. That's when we called the doctor and said, ‘Hey, this isn’t normal.’”
A respiratory therapist performed a stat EKG, the physician confirmed a heart attack, and the patient was transferred to St. Luke’s Hospital in Boise where his life was saved thanks to Mattie’s initial response.
“Mattie did a great job recognizing that it was abnormal, getting him hooked up to the monitor, and doing what she needed,” Saedee says. “She’s not afraid to ask questions or ask for help when she is unsure of something or thinks something is abnormal.”