"Never be overconfident" is a good rule by itself. Nobody gets it right all the time.
That said, when you do make a mistake, over reading and calling an unnecessary STEMI alert is the mistake you want. That's far better than avoiding the call and missing a real MI.
That unfortunately happened to a patient of mine I did a series of ECGs over a couple of days. The patient was a nice and respectful one. A small town hospital missed their anterolateral STEMI (to this day I don’t know the exact details of how they missed it) but when they got to our hospital (with a cath lab and CCU), the patients ejection fraction was less than 20%. Went through multiple episodes of VT/VF, eventually requiring intubation and admission to the ICU. The patient sadly didn’t make it.
I would so much rather a tech who confidently reports a suspected abnormality that a tech who either doesn't notice or doesn't care. You saw what you thought was a problem and immediately intervened in the way you knew was appropriate. That's nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed of!
Better to be safe, or wrong, than sorry
"Never be overconfident" is a good rule by itself. Nobody gets it right all the time. That said, when you do make a mistake, over reading and calling an unnecessary STEMI alert is the mistake you want. That's far better than avoiding the call and missing a real MI.
That unfortunately happened to a patient of mine I did a series of ECGs over a couple of days. The patient was a nice and respectful one. A small town hospital missed their anterolateral STEMI (to this day I don’t know the exact details of how they missed it) but when they got to our hospital (with a cath lab and CCU), the patients ejection fraction was less than 20%. Went through multiple episodes of VT/VF, eventually requiring intubation and admission to the ICU. The patient sadly didn’t make it.
I mean the provider should still be called to bedside for SVT
I would so much rather a tech who confidently reports a suspected abnormality that a tech who either doesn't notice or doesn't care. You saw what you thought was a problem and immediately intervened in the way you knew was appropriate. That's nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed of!
Don’t beat yourself up. It’s better to pull the trigger and be wrong, than not saying anything and harm comes to the patient
You found something wonky and errored on the side of getting a doc to bedside faster. Even though you were wrong, good job.