EKG Recognition Course Content

EKG monitoring is vital in healthcare positions involving cardiac patient care. Accurate recognition can help healthcare professionals identify cardiac rhythms that indicate potentially life-threatening conditions.

This six-and-a-half-hour EKG course outlines the circulatory system, cardiac conduction system and EKG waveform layouts, including the P-wave, R-wave, T-wave, PR intervals, QRS complex and ST segments. Students will also learn about pacemakers, their differences, uses and troubleshooting techniques. Each area is essential for proper EKG monitoring and can influence the best patient outcomes.

At the end of the course, healthcare professionals should understand the anatomy and physiology of the cardiac system, EKG electrode placement, recognition of lethal and nonlethal dysrhythmias and how to use cardiac monitoring equipment.

Technical Skills and Objectives

Students will learn various techniques surrounding EKG recognition and related disease identification. Some of the primary course objectives include:

• The importance of an EKG
• Skills needed to perform an EKG
• The structures, valves and chambers of the heart
• The cardiac cycle
• Components of the conduction system
• Each part and conduction activity of the EKG waveform
• Calculating patient heart rates
• The difference between EKG and cardiac monitoring
• Components and process of the rhythm
• Process and criteria to determine a dysrhythmia
• Normal sinus rhythm
• Sinus dysrhythmia
• Sinus tachycardia rhythm
• Sinus arrest rhythm
• Junctional dysrhythmias
• Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT)
• Variety of heart blocks
• Ventricular dysrhythmias