Acute cardiac care & resuscitationResearch article
Code Blue blindspots: mapping nursing exposure to cardiac arrests
- spatial-temporal analysis of Code Blue activations
- tertiary care hospital
- switchboard data
- modeled nursing exposure
Authors' conclusion
Even in high-incidence wards, most nurses experience long, irregular intervals between cardiac arrest events-periods long enough for CPR and resuscitation skills to decay. These invisible gaps suggest an opportunity to target simulation-based or just-in-time training to individuals or units most at risk of skill erosion, thereby improving readiness and team performance during IHCA.
Study context
- Population
- Code Blue activations at a tertiary care hospital from January 2023 through December 2024; modeled nursing work schedulesIn-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) events across 17 locations, 10,000 schedules modeled · standard 28-day work schedules nine · randomly generated variants 9,991
- Participants
- 208 participants
- Comparison
- nine standard schedules vs 10,000 modeled schedules
- nine standard schedulesn = nine
- 10,000 modeled schedulesn = 10,000
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Distribution of Code Blues across wards
Code Blues occurring in a single cardiology step-down unit
30%
Further findings
| Outcome | nine standard schedules | 10,000 modeled schedules |
|---|---|---|
| Code Blues experienced and gaps between exposures, standard schedules · two years | ||
| median Code Blues | 15 | Not reported in the abstract |
| median gap between exposures | 36 days (IQR 34.5-47) | Not reported in the abstract |
| Time between exposures, all modeled schedules | median 38 (IQR 31–50.5) days | |
| schedules with at least one gap longer than 90 days | Not reported in the abstract | 98% |
Code Blues experienced and gaps between exposures, standard schedules · two years
- All nine core schedules contained at least one gap exceeding 90 days
Original publication
Code Blue blindspots: mapping nursing exposure to cardiac arrests. Resuscitation. Published 1 February 2026. doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2026.111000
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it