Best way to get to cath lab?

[delphine22]

I'm a fairly new nurse. I worked one year in a PCU telemetry unit at a smaller hospital, then moved to a larger hospital in their Interventional Cardiac PCU unit. We take all the chest pains, the pre-/post-caths and pre-/post-pacers, also most of the non titrated drips (no pressors, NTG drip for chest pain only). Lots of dysrhythmia, groin mgmt, pressing out hematomas, catching pseudos and retro bleeds, etc. (Though thankfully we don't have too many of those.) I've been here six months and love it, but eventually I'd like to work cath lab.

My dream would be to go from here right to the cath lab, and I've heard that's not unheard of around here. Two other options are Cath Prep & Recovery, or CCICU. Cath P&R does all the intake for the cath lab -- the prep side is basically just like a preop unit. The recovery side pulls the lines -- well, techs do with RN supervision.

CCICU is our critical cardiac ICU, but it isn't always open due to low census. The post open hearts and acute MIs can go there, or to medical ICU, or the open hearts can even go straight to the CV PCU floor, which is more like a true stepdown. I am not interested in working general MICU, and I fear that's where I'd end up (or worse, called off) if CCICU were closed.

Is critical care experience necessary for cath lab? Or would working in the department just before/after the cath lab be better? I think rather than putting in IVs and watching someone pull lines, I might be better served to stay on this floor and learn about the reasons WHY a pt needs a cath: read their EKGs, deal with their drips, etc. I will get my PCCN certification in July, but I know that's not really relevant to cath lab, they want CCRN or RCIS (not required for hire here, but within first year).

Any thoughts from CCL or PCU nurses would be much appreciated! :)

[Nurse Kyles, BSN, RN]

In my hospital, the nurses that work in cath lab all came from PCU or CCU. Although our PCU sounds like a mesh of your interventional PCU & CV PCU. We pull sheaths and run titratable cardiac drips. We also take all the post open heart surgery patients as soon as POD 1. I have floated to CCU to take care of post cath patients, and honestly the CCU nurses had very little clue what to do with them. I was shocked that they were asking me for advice. I think the Interventional PCU will be a good place to get your experience, and also get to know the cath lab team.

[SillyStudent, ASN, RN]

It took me almost 6 years of combined ER/ICU experience to get to Cath lab. I was notified yesterday that I got the job. Most of the people there have a lot of experience. I was shocked that they hired me. Any ICU experience counts. I have never worked CVICU. My ICU experience was SICU/MICU/CCU.