can a med-surg nurse work in telemetry?

[Ms.RN]

I've been working in the med-surg unit and I have never been oriented or worked at the telemetry unit. The other day I was being asked if I can work in a telemetry unit. So i'm wondering, is telemetry unit almost the same as the med-surg unit? Do you think its safe for med-surge nurse to work in telemetry unit wihtout any training?

[suanna]

Basic arrythmia management/tele were part of my basic RN education. I don't see why you couldn't. I don't think you should be taking patients on cardioactive drips that require a good understanding of unit protocals, and physician standing orders, but your basic AF with CVR or post STEMI day 4 with no ST elevation should be no problem. I also wouldn't expect you to be the nurse in charge- someone who knows the unit should be doing the admissions, assignments, and interacting with the shift supervisor. Basic Tele isn't any different from med/surg most of the time in most hospitals. Of course if you are workking a high acuity Tele unit that is run like a "stepdown" CCU it is probably best to have some orientation.

[Juwon]

Yes you can, and on some hospital floors, the med/surg and Tele patients are mixed together.

[Amanda.RN]

Yes, you can. The med/surg floor I worked on was tele too -- a lot of hospitals combine them like that. Were you trained in reading/interpreting telemetry, and what to do in case of arrythmia? If you have not been, consider asking for additional training.

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

What is the skill level expectation for M/S nurses at your institution?

What ECG training and skills validation have you received? What is your current level of competency? How comfortable are you in your ability to accurately identify arrhythmias? Learning ECG skills, and adequately maintaining them are two different things, IMHO

If you don't feel you can deliver safe care, you need to refuse the assignment until additional training and verification of ability can be provided.

[Crux1024]

Tele nurses at my facility are expected to have taken a hospital provided basic arrythmias class, also required is ACLS. However, when supp staff that was M/S would come up to the floor, we just watched their patients on the monitor and tried to not assigned them pts with cardiac drips, or other pts that were basically pure cardiac cases (if that makes sense).

[LouisVRN, RN]

Imo at my hospital no. There is no way id be working tele without training. Our policies are completely different

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

At my facility, no. The tele floor takes fresh STEMIs straight from the cath lab, requiring introducer sheath removal and post PCI monitoring by the RNs, as well as monitoring patients experiencing arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation/flutter, AV blocks, SVT, VT, and it's where post cardiac arrests go after they're DCd from ICU. It's the only part of the hospital outside of ICU/ED where certain gtts can be administered.

The med/surg nurses have no experience with telemetry. If an arrhythmia is recognized, the patient is transferred to the tele unit.

If your facility is anything like mine, if you float to tele, you should only be assigned to care for medical overflow, not true tele patients.

[DookieMeisterRN]

In my hospital you need to have tele certification from an ECG class to take care of any pt on telemetry. If you don't have basic telemetry training you should definitely not be taking care of monitored pts.

[aikz]

in my hospital, we have a telemetry/step-down floor but some of the med-surg floors also have tele monitors. they just mix everyone. heart problems are too common

[FrogKissingNurse]

i work on a tele floor. we get anyone with chest pain, post cath patients and we also have 4 intermediate care rooms for patients who are a step down from cardiac icu. my unit we have someone who sits and monitors the telemetry on the unit. they are pretty good about letting us know if something has changed. in which case you call the doctor and let them know. i don't see why a med/surg nurse couldn't take care of stable cardiac patients. if something starts to change you can always get help from other nurses. for us the only really standing orders are for chest pain. you get a stat ekg, vitals, start oxygen, sublingual nitro and call the doctor.

[DookieMeisterRN]

i work on a tele floor. we get anyone with chest pain, post cath patients and we also have 4 intermediate care rooms for patients who are a step down from cardiac icu. my unit we have someone who sits and monitors the telemetry on the unit. they are pretty good about letting us know if something has changed. in which case you call the doctor and let them know. i don't see why a med/surg nurse couldn't take care of stable cardiac patients. if something starts to change you can always get help from other nurses. for us the only really standing orders are for chest pain. you get a stat ekg, vitals, start oxygen, sublingual nitro and call the doctor.

don't get me wrong, most mt's are awesome and know what they're doing but you can't rely on that. ultimately, you, the rn is responsible.

you need to know your rhythms and interventions, not wait for someone to tell you something funky is going on and what to do.