Cardiovascular clinic RN prep

[sameasalways, ASN, RN]

Hi everyone, I am an RN on a very busy post-op surgical and medical floor. We receive all sorts of surgeries and also medical patients. They typically have multiple co-morbidities; However, even if they have a cardiac history, we are not treating them for cardiac issues. Sometimes they will be put on remote-telemetry due to their IV BP medication or history or sometimes they will C/O chest pain and be put on remote telemetry. My main concern right now is I have been doing that job for 3 years (almost) and am probably getting hired to a cardiovascular clinic. I did make it clear to them that this is the nature of my job and that I would require training and be asking lots of questions (and I feel bad because I know the questions will seems really "dumb")...even though people say there is no such thing LOL. I am wondering if anyone has any advice on things to research and read about to help prepare myself for this job. It is a large cardiovascular office with 12 cardiologists and multiple RN's and MA's. They have their own coumadin clinic which I will also be responsible for helping with. We will dose their Lovenox/coumadin off a web based program using their INR, PT levels that are checked.

My other primary responsibility will be doing nurse referrals. The calls come in to the secretary who filters out depending on if the patient needs an appointment, or needs a nurse referral. Those referrals are sent to a computer and when I click them I am told I will have access to their medical history, medications, and tests. There will be another nurse right beside me for if I have questions or need to bounce ideas off of her. I am really excited as cardiology is my one big weakness. I do not get to utitilize cardiac care at work in any detailed manner and am barely familiar with the drugs and on the simplest of terms. I have had acute patients that probably belong on a step-down unit before, but still, cardiac care is something I don't deal with on an intrinsic basis. I am looking for help with what medications and procedures I should be familiar with and if anyone has any ideas for books or quick references I can use. I do not know the abbreviations a lot of you have been using either. Thanks so much!