Free BCEN Certified Flight Registered Nurse (CFRN) Practice Question

The most appropriate initial intervention when a patient on a balloon pump develops a new dysrhythmia is to assess and adjust the timing of the pump. The device's effectiveness heavily relies on proper timing relative to the cardiac cycle, which can be disrupted by dysrhythmias. Administering antiarrhythmic medications or defibrillation may also be necessary, but these are secondary steps. Simply increasing the pump frequency without addressing the timing would not resolve the issue and may worsen the patient's hemodynamic status.