Action Potentials and Electrolytes for Nurses: ECG Training

Action potentials and electrolytes for Nurses: ECG Training

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

* Explain what an action potential
* Use the model of "money" or "going to a concert" to describe an action potential to others
* Identify the three electrolytes required for an Action Potential
* Familiarize yourself with the phases of action potentials between the specialized cells of conduction and the myocardiocytes.
* Introduction to drugs affecting the cardiac action potential
What is Action Potential?

An action potential is the rise and fall of electrical charge, aka voltage (measured in millivolts (mV)) across the cellular membrane of one cell that influences the change in neighboring cells. Consider it like a "the wave" that occurs at sporting events. As one person stands up, it creates a shift in energy in the people around them. Soon we have an action potential moving across the crowd.

It is the same in our cells. As an action potential travels down a pathway or an axon, there is a change of polarity across the membrane of the axon as a result of the sodium and potassium channels opening up.

Just like that person who decided to stand up at the sporting event, action potentials in cells are generated by special types of voltage-gated ion channels. Voltage-gated ion channels are like doors to the cells. They are activated (opened and closed) by changes that occur in their environment.

The ions carry a positive charge (and anions carry a negative charge), and the ones we will focus on in this lesson include potassium (K+), sodium (Na+), and calcium (Ca2+). The movement of these ions across the cell membrane follow characteristic patterns and create gradient swings, or changes, that allow for rapid depolarization and repolarization of neuronal and muscle tissues.

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