Memo: The Instruction for Placing Monitor Leads in 12 Heart Monitor

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SUBJECT: The Instruction for Placing Monitor Leads in 12 Heart Monitor

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Introduction

The instruction is aimed at nursing staff, which deals with the 12 heart monitor. The information in the instruction is presented with the purpose to inform nurses about the procedure and the main steps to be taken. The guide will help to avoid possible problems with the equipment in the future. It is important to make sure that all the leads are put on the correct places.

The mistakes nurses can make while the procedure may lead to the very serious issues. First, wrong results may occur, and, in this case, the diagnosis will be wrong. The consequences of a wrong diagnosis will lead to the problems with treatment. A wrong treatment results in worsening of a condition due to the absence of the appropriate treatment. Also, wrong treatment may worsen the condition as sometimes medical prescriptions may be harmful.

The audience the guide is aimed for are nurses. Nursing staff must consider the information carefully to make sure that the mistakes are avoided. This instruction should be placed near each 12 heart monitor. At the same time, the information must be learned by heart. Nurses are expected to know these steps without using any printed material. The steps should be not only learned, but also practiced as well.

This topic is selected because the mistakes in placing the leads have recently occurred. The topicality of the theme is explained by the number of failures during the monitoring procedure. Heart monitoring is very important in diagnosis. People may have a number of different interpretations of their feelings, while the monitoring results may help put the diagnosis and prescribe the treatment. The earlier the treatment starts, the better outcome will be held.

The instruction is put on three pages to assure that the information is concise and understandable. The introduction presents a very detailed explanation of the purposes and of the procedure in the narrative form. The introduction is important in understanding the audience and the basic knowledge one should possess in order to be able to get the data. The instructions are presented in the form of a table to perceive the information visually better. The table consists of three columns. The first column shows the number of steps. The second column is the detailed explanation of the steps. The last column points to the warnings, if any.

Body

The instruction is a detailed, but still very concise data about the steps one should take in order to have a heart monitoring. The table is used with the illustrations. The table is used to demonstrate the steps. The first column shows the numbers of the steps. Overall, there are 14 steps, thus, 1-14 list of enumerations is presented. The next column describes each of the steps. The instruction is a detailed explanation of each step. Still, the concise and informative manner is used. According to the rules of the instructions, the information to the steps should be concise, but, at the same time, detailed not to avoid any important data. Thus, the steps involve the following actions: to put the white lead on the upper part of the right arm, to put the black lead on the upper part of the left arm, to place the green lead to the lower right side (under the white lead), to place the red lead to the lower left side (under the black lead), to put the V1 lead into the 4th intercostals space, to the right part of the sternum, to put the V2 lead into the 4th intercostals space, to the left part of the sternum, to put the V4 lead between the middle of the clavicular line and the 5th intercostals space, to put the V6 lead horizontally with the V4 on the middle of the axillary line, to put the V5 lead between the V6 lead and V4 lead, to put the V3 lead between the V4 lead and V2 lead, to make sure that all the leads are on their places, to turn on the monitor by pressing 12-LEAD button, to turn round knob to set the age, to push the knob to start the procedure.

The alignment is used in the following way. First, the main headings are centered and bold. Second, each new paragraph is indented. After the table, the illustrations are put with the purpose to show visually how the leads should be placed. The first picture is a photo of the monitor in order to give a general vision of how the equipment is put. The second picture is the illustration of the placement of the main four leads. They are usually colored. The third picture illustrates the places of the additional leads numbered V1-V6.

This choice of the design is selected in a number of purposes. The description of the information in the beginning is used to give a general vision of what the instruction is about. The table is used for better perception of the steps and the pictures are used for illustrating the steps presented in the table. The instruction is not overloaded with the variety of fonts, bolds, and italics. The whole paper has three main zones. The first part is just the description of the main information, the introduction to the instruction and the general data about the audience and people who may be interested. The second part is table with the steps. The third part is the illustrations. Such design is used to shape the information and to make the instruction visually friendly. As it has already been mentioned above, three illustrations are used, a photo of 12 heart monitor, the illustration of how to place main leads and the illustration of how to place additional leads.

Conclusion

Overall, the design decision of the instruction is very convenient for reading. The document is created in a very formal, but, at the same time, visually friendly form for understanding the material. The information in the instruction is divided into three main parts, which visually have different designs. The first part is a descriptive data. The second part of the information is put in a form of a table for better perception of the main steps. The third part is the illustration of the steps for better perception.

The audience of the instruction is a nursing staff. Having general information about the work of the 12 heart monitor, nurses do not need a detailed explanation of the procedure. The main purpose of the instruction is to inform about the main steps to assure that the warnings are understood.