Cardiac Telemetry

Specialties Cardiac

Published

I just received an awesome oppurtunity to start my first nursing job as a cardiac telemetry nurse what is it like

Congratulations.

I found my niche in telemetry/ step down many moons ago.I appreciated the constant stream of information from the monitor, showing every beat of my patient's heart. Gives you volumes of information on their condition.

Depending on your unit, you may be managing IV drips such as vasopressors and antiarrhythmics. That will keep you on you toes!

You may be managing ventilated patients and will learn that respiratory therapy is your best buddy.

How long is your orientation and what is the nurse - patient ratio?

i think its something i will like. My orientation is 4 monts and the patient nurse ratio is 5:1

Specializes in Critical Care.

Tele is good for extra monitoring of a patient. You are not going to walk into the room and find a patient dead because usually you'll see some activity on the tele first warning you such as VTACH. Once I was looking at the monitor and saw vfib and ran into the room and called a code. We got the patient back with CPR and shocking the patient one time. Talk about perfect timing! Without tele, the patient would probably have been found already dead and too late to bring them back. Most of the time it's not that dramatic, instead the tele helps give a warning so you can take action to prevent a code in the first place. Also the advent of emergency response teams has helped prevent codes.

What a unit is like depends on the hospital and unit itself. What is the average level of acuity and intensity, what types of drips does the unit give, do they have patients on LVAD's? Some units are more glorified med-surg, others are intense with all sorts of drips, procedures and LVAD's.

I would study telemetry, 12 Lead EKG and ACLS. You will be using this info on a daily basis and it will become second nature to you

thanks Brandy :)

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

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Specializes in cardiac-telemetry, hospice, ICU.

Telemetry floors are always busy. That is, for the pt to be there, they have a heart problem. From my experience it is rare for a patient to ONLY have a heart problem, they often have a bag full of co-morbidities. Diabetes, pneumonia, cellulitis, GI problems, etc, etc, etc. I've worked other floors and overall I would say tele patients are the most complex (except for ICU etc of course). Be prepared to run and as others have said, brush up on your cardiac meds.

First of all congrats!! You will do fine! I have 5yrs tele experience and I can tell you that a ratio of 4:1 is ideal as the other poster said, many cardiac pts have many co-morbidities, including but not limited to: DM, COPD, even neoplasms. Know your cardiac meds, know your basic strips, and never be afraid to ask for help identifying a difficult strip, some of the most experienced nurses have trouble differentiating between ST and rapid A-fib!! Good luck!! :-)

Congrats! Like many of the other replies, Tele is the place to be if you like to keep busy. I love that there is so much to learn because you see so much more than just cardiac problems. IT is definitely good to brush up on cardiac meds. If there's a basic arrythmia interpretation course that you can take I'd suggest that you do it as well. ACLS goes over it with you but if you need extra practice it's not a bad idea. Never be afraid to ask questions. Tele is one big learning experience and you'll see new things all the time. Good luck!

Congrats! Tele is a wonderful place to start as a new grad, like someone said the pts have so many co-morbidities that you will learn a lot!

Specializes in Telemetry.

Congrats on the job! I am a new grad and I just finished my second interview on the tele floor that I precepted on during my last semester. I absolutely LOVED my precepting experience on this floor and I really want to get hired! It is a VERY fast paced environment as previous posters have stated, and that is what I like - to always be on my toes. I found that I had a lot of DM along with the heart problems, so I was constantly giving insulin as well as cardiac meds. I also love geriatric nursing and a lot of the patients on our tele floor are older, so it is the best of both worlds without working in a nursing home. I am not against working LTC but as a new grad I want to use all of my skills.

Good Luck!!

Specializes in ORTHO, TRAUMA, MED-SURG, L&D, POSTPARTUM.

Thank you for posting this question about telemetry units! I was looking for posts on new grad orientations on tele/med-surg units because I just completed an interview for a position on a tele unit. I was so happy to see this band new thread!!! :)

During my last semester of nursing school I had 190 hour capstone and precepted on the same tele floor I interviewed for. Since all of my med-surg/ICU clinicals were completed at this hospital and I'm familiar with the documentation/charting system, they stated my orientation would be 6-8 weeks. Eeeek! I wish it was 4 months like yours because to say tele is fast-paced is an understatement! Lol. So much to learn! Also the hospital recently approved for the patient-nurse ratio on tele to be "occasionally" bumped to 6 patients! I've seen nurses swamped with 5 patients and my preceptor with 7 years experience even stated taking care of 6 on the tele unit is intense for her. I'm a bit nervous about that. It took me 10 shifts before I could get up to 5 patients and it was still very overwhelming.

With 6 patients....all I have to say is thank God I'm hired for night shift with less meds, less new orders, less tests/procedures to prep the patient for, and less admissions and d/c's! Although...I've heard they stay just as busy with other tasks like nurse notes. Does anyone know how nights and days on tele might be different?

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