cardiac rehab nursing

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I will be graduating with a degree in exercise physiology this semester. I got accepted in a nursing school. I want to be in cardiac rehab. Has anyone made this switch of careers and combined them? I'm curious as to what else my possibilities are. Thank you

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Was your degree in kinesiology? I met some of those folks when in doctoral classes. Very impressive field that I knew absolutely nothing about before meeting them - LOL. Some of them worked in cardiac rehab areas, (large medical centers) including pre-and post cardiac transplant areas. But, as I understand it, their work was complementary to nursing - with each discipline doing their own things... not much overlap. The nurses were more 'cardiac' focused since the kinesthesiology folks took care of the rehab stuff.

I don't know of anyone that has made the switch that you are describing, but I would imagine that it would result in a great skill mix - particularly for Stage I cardiac rehab settings, which must have nurses on staff whenever patients are present.

Best of luck to you! Keep us posted on your progress. I'd love to hear about your impressions of nursing as you go through the career transition.

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Feel free to pm me ! I was an exercise physiologist who went back to nursing school. The combination of degrees absolutely made me more marketable to cardiac rehab programs. However, once you get into it as an RN you will kind of need to choose and you will be forced more into your role as an RN. You will still use the exercise phys stuff though for sure.

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