ECMO specialists.

[CardiacDork, MSN, RN]

I'm not sure if this will get enough hits but any ECMO specialists out there want to chime in on your role?

Im currently an ICU nurse. Total 3+ years of nursing experience 1+ of those years in ICU but definitely less than 2 (for ICU).

How is ECMO specialist role different than bedside ICU RN? I've taken care of ECMO patients as the bedside ICU Nurse.

Im curious about the ECMO specialist, specifically.

What do you most Like? Dislike? Are you given a different pay than your regular ICU role? At my facility ECMO can be done PRN by ICU nurses (both adult and neonate ICU).

Just give me a general synopsis of your role? your day/night? Your greatest responsibility? What was your orientation like? How does it compare to bedside ICU nursing?

Thanks! :)

[Luckyyou, BSN, RN]

Neonatal/pediatric ECMO specialist here. I make an extra 5% for being ECMO trained but no diff for sitting pump. I like having insanely busy ECMO shifts -- patient putting liters out of chest tubes post transplant, etc. I haaaaate the nights where nothing happens. We call it "sitting and spinning" - and fortunately for the patients, there's a lot of that. While technically the medical team writes the orders, it's my responsibility to have a better handle on the anticoagulatuon and hemodynamic protocols than they do to ensure the patient is managed correctly. Most of the time, I'm just telling the fellow what to order. Our orientation was 2 8-hour classroom days and 100 precepted pump hours to cover ECMO in the NICU, PICU and peds cardiac ICU. I am familiar with four different kind of pumps, and we do both VA and VV ECMO. Most days, I'd 100x rather be working as an ECMO specialist than my usual shifts in the NICU.

[CardiacDork, MSN, RN]

Thank you for your response! I'm super excited for when the time comes! 1 more year and I can apply to be an ECMO specialist.