Any EP Doctor Office Nurses Out There?

[Nightrn16]

Greetings! It's been a while since I posted, mainly because sometimes RL sucks.

The last time I posted, I worked on a 39 Telemetry bed unit, taking care of as many as 9 patients at night plus being responsible for the LPN on my hallway. She could have as many as 8 patients as well. We (the nurses, not the LPN's) also started and titrated many types of critical drips. (Insulin, amiodarone, cardiziem, heparin, dopamine, dobutamine, argantroban, levophed, ect ...) I ended up working there for 2 years before burn out and stress got to me. I would have stuck it out longer because I hate quitting, but my grandfather, who raised me, asked me to move home and help take care of him. He was 84 at the time.

So from 2006-2011, I stepped away from the 'official nursing positions' and I took care of my grandfather and my step-dad. (I kept my WV License active though.) I kept track of all of their doctor appointments, lab work, any questions that needed to be asked to the doctors, meds, hospital visits, blood pressures, and sugars. Not to mention the fact that I was also the primary driver for both of them. (And they lived 20 minutes apart, so after a while, it got to be a strain on me, but I did it.)

My grandpa passed away at 89 this past November, so I've moved to Virginia to spend time with my biological father and to get to know my 10 year brother. My other brother moved in with my step-dad and while he doesn't do the blood pressures checks or the sugar checks or take him to the doctors and stuff, he does keep an eye on him. I go back to WV when he needs to go see the doctor's.

Anyway, I digress. I got my VA Nursing License and recently interviewed for a nurses position in a doctor's office and I would deal mostly with the EP doctor's. I don't know if I have it yet, but I'm hoping I do. I felt the interview went well.

I was wondering if there were other nurses in a similar setting and what their responsibilities were? The interviewer told me that it was a fairly new position that they were interviewing for and hoped that by adding a nurse that dealt mostly with the 3 EP doctor's in the practice (there are 19 cardiologists at the one practice) it would help out with the load.

She told me that it would mostly involve teaching a patient about a procedure and a LOT of follow up. In all honesty, I was practically jumping at the idea.

I know a little about them because I have taken care of patients post AICD and post Pacemaker. (If they had an ablation, they went to a step-down unit.) But over all, I'll be learning even more in depth about stuff. To be honest, I've even looked up all kinds of info on the web.

I should know later this week if I'll get called in for a second interview. I really hope I do. If I don't, then really, the knowledge won't be lost. No knowledge is ever truly wasted. :)

Any other EP doctor office nurses out there, if you could let me know what all you have to do, I would appreciate it. :)

[Zookeeper3]

I know what the nurse does because I worked in the EP lab and talked to her frequently.

-Monitors PT/INR compliance, results and gets orders to adjust daily doseages

-Does pre-op teaching for implants and EP testing

-Fields a ton of calls with pre-op results, ensuring everything is in line prior to a proceedure

-New medication teaching

-RE-adjusts the doc's scheduling priority with the office staff based on patients needs

-Keeps the doc on track

-orders supplies

-Supervises other employees and ensures compliance with AED, code cart O2 is kept up and documented.

-Keeps detailed record of all calls and attempts to contact patients, especially the non compliant ones.