[jfpruitt]

Anyone here work in a cardiac cath lab? What are your responsibilities?

[baseline]

[NurseGirlKaren]

Me! I have been there for 1 1/2 yrs and love it. We do all the preprocedure, recovery, and intraprocedure care. During the procedure it's just us and the doc and tech in the room (tech scrubs and pans), so we do the monitoring and the meds.

What else do you want to know?

[baseline]

[arkgolfer]

I worked in one for about 4 years. Bar none the best nursing job in our hospital. I only left to prepare better for anesthesia school.

[RNCENCCRNNREMTP]

Patient prep (pre room and on table)
Sedation
Monitoring (EKG and Pressures)
Calculate CO
Calculate valve area
Calculate shunt
Defib
Pace
Resuscitate
Assist with IABP placement and use
Scrub in and assist with cath
Post procedure monitoring
Sheath removal and sheath site care
Patient education
Transport

[CCL"Babe"]

Left ER for Cath Lab 6 years ago. Absolutely my favorite job.
Our lab is an interventional lab. We also do a fair amount of research, which can be a pain at times.

RNs rotate between several jobs, these include;

Prep and recover patients.
EP studies, cardioversions, TEE, dobutamine stress assists.
Assist with evaluations of AICDs. Pacer implantations and tilt table procedures.
Scrub in and assist with caths and interventions, rotablators, stents, angiojets, IVUS, etc.
Monitor cases.
Circulate cases.
Administer conscious sedation.
Assist with IABP insertions.
Emergency interventions, temp pacer insertions.

[CCL"Babe"]

I forgot, we also do peripheral studies and interventions.

[JoL]

I work in a Cath Lab in Middlesbrough and enjoy it the work is varied I was a Health Care Assistant. I am now undertaking a Foundation Degree at the University of Teesside and are a Foundation Degree Student I scurb for LHC and PCI assisted at the moment I also perform E.C.G,s and have basic E.C.G recognition, aterial sheath removal, pt observations, circulate cases, patient education and lots of other duties to many to mention. Love it

[Taryn]

Another cath lab nurse here...currently working as a traveler.
Have worked in a few different labs over the years.
Some places have the nurses monitor,circulate and scrub.
Some only circulate.
The place I am now allows me to do all of the above.
I just started working in this lab and they seem to be really short on scrub people so it looks like that may be most of what I do for the next 12 weeks.