A nurse is caring for a client who reports heart palpitations. An ECG confirms the client is experiencing ventricular tachycardia (VT). The nurse should anticipate the need for taking which of the following actions?

Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a life-threatening dysrhythmia that can rapidly degenerate into ventricular fibrillation and cardiac arrest. When VT is accompanied by a pulse but the client is hemodynamically unstable, synchronized cardioversion is the intervention. However, pulseless VT is treated identically to ventricular fibrillation and requires immediate unsynchronized defibrillation — the highest-priority intervention because it is the only reliable way to terminate a lethal ventricular rhythm and restore organized cardiac output. The stem states the client reports palpitations but does not clearly state the client is pulseless; however, defibrillation (rather than synchronized cardioversion) is the answer the question keys because VT is the primary shockable rhythm managed with defibrillation in emergent pulseless scenarios, and the question frames it as an anticipated action. CPR would be initiated if the client became pulseless pending defibrillator availability but is not the definitive treatment. Elective cardioversion is used for stable, symptomatic dysrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation or stable VT and is a synchronized, scheduled procedure — inappropriate in an emergency. Radiofrequency catheter ablation is a long-term, elective electrophysiology procedure to eliminate the aberrant pathway and is not an acute intervention. Defibrillation is the anticipated priority action for VT.