The significant value of educated nurse in ECG Holter monitoring interpretation

Abstract

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Introduction ECG Holter monitoring is a non-invasive diagnostic procedure that continuously records electrocardiography during 24 hours daily routine. The primary role of the nurse is to secure that the electrodes are placed correctly, and to advise the patient. Purpose The aim of our study is to emphasize the great importance of nurses by involving them into the interpretation of ECG Holter monitoring. Materials and Methods Senior nurses in our hospital, R. Macedonia were educated, by cardiologists, in electrocardiography interpretation. The nurses proactively ensured the technical quality of the monitoring and the data processing. We analyzed the time from the setting up the 24 hours ECG Holter monitoring to the time when the results were issued to the patient in the period from January 2020 to December 2022. All data used for the study were taken from the Hospital Information System. Our Hospital Information System records the date and exact time (hours and minutes) of the opening and closing of the report. Only the referred cardiologist is authorized to close the report. Results Three thousand twenty-three 24 hours ECG Holter monitoring reports were processed. The average time of closing the report was 1680 minutes or 28 hours. If we exclude in average the first 22 hours of wearing the device, then we can conclude that the time from when the device is disconnected from the patient to the completion of the report, including the physician examination is in average 6 hours. Conclusion ECG educated nurses can be actively involved in the interpretation of ECG Holter monitoring which reduces the time for obtaining the results to less than 24 hours and enables rapid diagnosis and treatment by a cardiologist/electrophysiologist.