Am I competent enough?

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So the hospital I work at doesn't have any monitor techs and recently, they have had nurses coming in to watch the monitors on the Telemetry Unit. I know a few of the nursing supervisors at my hospital, and I was speaking with one of them today (she happened to be the nurse today monitoring the tele monitors) and she said that if I took a test and scored well on it, they would orientate me and let me be a monitor tech. I asked her if I had to have some sort of certification and she said no, and as long as I score well on this test they administer me, I would probably be ok. The thing is, how in depth do you think a test like this will be? How proficient do I need to be in interpreting ECG's?

I mean...I think I am pretty good. I have a ECG nursing book that I have read front to back, although I don't remember everything that was said, I have a good, general grasp on everything...I think.

Today, I was standing next to the supervisor who was watching the monitors, and I was able to tell her which ones were abnormal like who had a pacemaker, who looked to have past cardiac related issues, I was pointing out the PACs and the PVCs and was explaining to her why they happened (she knew already, I was just testing myself), and other small things that popped up.

My question is how in depth do I really need to be able to interpret?? Because in the end, I'm not going to be the one to administer the atropine or the amiodarone or whatever...and I'm not going to be the one diagnosing the patient with LVH or WPW....all I need to do is be able to tell if its abnormal or if the leads are off, along with a few other clerical duties like the measuring...right?

What kind of other duties do your monitor techs do or perform?

Also, the tele unit today had a census of 28, and thats usually a normal day for them.

Sorry for the length of such a simple question, I just kept typing, ha.

Thanks

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I forgot to mention...

Does anyone know of a website that quizzes you on ECG strip interpretation? I found a few, but if anyone else knew of any others, could you mention them as well?? Thanks a lot.

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

look at this thread filled with information you need:

helpful information for the unit

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