I'm currently on the job hunt, and have an interview coming up next week with a major hospital in my area for an Apheresis position. Only problem is, I never applied for this job and have no idea how much of a learning curve it will be. I guess they kept my application in circulation and just decided to call me to interview for this position instead of the one I originally applied to. I decided to go in and interview just to keep my options open and find out what they were offering.

Anyway, what exactly does this job entail? Anyone work as an apheresis nurse who can tell me? It seems like a very specialized role from what little I gleaned from searching up past threads.

It IS quite a specialty area.

I hope one of our many members will come along to help provide information for you.

Let us know how the interview goes! :)

Hi! I actually regestered today so I could answer your question. I was a Therapeutic Apheresis Nurse from 2009-2013. I performed a wide variety of procedures on pts in the hospital or at infusion centers. I got to experience the ICU, BMTU, Hematology/Oncology floor, PICU. The most popular procedure done was TPE (therapeutic plasma exchange) which treated various autoimmune conditions. I also performed Red blood cell exchange/depletion for sickle cell or severe hemachromatosis. White blood cell depletion, platelet depletion, stem cell collection on both adults and children. The training is stringent. 3 months with another seasoned nurse, then I was on call every other week. You will learn to access dialysis vas-cath and stick ac veins with 16 gauge needles for access if pt doesn't have port access. You will learn sterile technique accessing said ports. Pts BP can drop especially if they are on ACE Inhibitors. They will tingle due to the citrate anticoagulant dropping their calcium/magnesium levels. Pts can have allergic reactions to the replacement fluid used. You have to be prepared for anything! I traveled to about 15 different hospitals in 5 different counties. I also received mileage reimbursement and great benefits. All in all, it was an enjoyable job, but I moved and couldn't keep it. Hope this helped!

Oh, also Apheresis.org is a good resource! Good luck!

I have also done apheresis for years. PrettyInBlack has given you a lot of good info. I liked it a lot. You typically have one patient at a time, as you are running a procedure, monitoring your patient and making adjustments on the machine (especially with stem cell collections). You get to work with a lot of different types of patients, from cancer to some really rare diagnoses (Goodpasture's Syndrome, HUS, TTP, etc.). The weekend, holiday and on call requirement was the major downfall and the reason I just left. Good luck!

I agree with CarryThatWeight! I am now working in a Specialty Pharmacy working with oral chemotherapy. Love my job!

Apheresis nursing is usually through the city/county blood bank. At least in NYC, the RNs who come to the hospital to do this procedure on our inpatients are working with the NY Blood Bank. The ones I met said that they had at least 3 years of experience as RN in hospital and then the NY Blood Bank trained them to do the apheresis procedures. They travel to all the city hospitals as needed (procedure ordered by MD and then the RN is assigned to to the visit patients in the hospitals).

At my old hospital, apheresis was done on the tele floor. If you had a patient on it the ratio would be 1:3.

Wow, a 1:3 ratio for therapeutic apheresis?! I traveled for the Blood bank as well doing apheresis and my ratio was always 1:1. There are so many things that can happen during a procedure.

Wait, was it one pt to three nurses or the other way around?

1 nurse to 3 patients, one undergoing apheresis

Thanks everyone, your replies were very helpful. It sounds like an interesting job and I'm glad I know what it is now. :)