Cath Lab Attendant -> CST -> CNOR

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Specializes in ICU. Med/Surg: Ortho, Neuro, & Cardiac.

My apologies if this is an inappropriate topic for this forum, but I have some questions.

I'm currently employed as a night shift CNA on a 30-bed Med/Surg unit specializing in Ortho/Neuro and I am currently taking my pre-requisites/academic courses to become a Certified Surgical Technologist. FYI, my ultimate goal is to become an RN and earn my CNOR cert.

I was looking on our intranet site the other night during a lull in the shift and found a job posting for a Cath Lab Attendant. My questions:

1. I would like to try something new, and I figure this will give me a bit more insight into what I'm going to school for at this time. Am I right or wrong? Is the Cath Lab similar to the OR in any way?

2. What job duties do a Cath Lab Attendant have, if anyone knows? I Googled it, but I'm not finding anything.

3. Can anyone recommend any good books that will help me learn to read a cardiac monitor?

4. I know that the operating room operates, for lack of better term, quite differently from a Med/Surg patient care unit, but would working in the Cath Lab give me a bit more knowledge and better experience toward becoming a CST, and then a circulating nurse?

Thanks for your time and thanks in advance for the replies. I look forward to good answers from all the excellent nurses on this forum.

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I hate to sound this way but if your goal is to be an RN, do not use the others as stepping stones. Simply go to school for the RN to start with.

I do not have cath lab experience so I'm out on that one. Sorry

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Ok here is my view on the situation. I have never worked cath lab but I have worked interventional radiology. You might be a patient transporter under this vauge job description. Some labs OTJ train to scrub in cases and assist the physicians during daignostic or therapeutic procedures. Come cath labs have cangiogram/sent/andgioplast only, others do EP studies and ablations, pacemaker placements and peripheral vascular work.

Compared to general OR these labs can provide you training in serile technique, assisting in cases, but there will be few anesthesia cases. The eqipment is spacilized so this may not transition to genrela or. One hosiptal I work out of has a scrub tech working full time in interventional radiology. RNs working in the cath lab are eligable for CNOR certification, there is also a certifiction for invasive personel given by CCI.

If you will only be a patient transporter there can be better learning jobs for the OR, such as sterile supply or even transporter for an OR. But if they are willing to have you for setting up tables, scrubbingin on cases ect it might be a great learning experience.

Jeremy

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Specializes in ICU. Med/Surg: Ortho, Neuro, & Cardiac.
Ok here is my view on the situation. I have never worked cath lab but I have worked interventional radiology. You might be a patient transporter under this vauge job description. Some labs OTJ train to scrub in cases and assist the physicians during daignostic or therapeutic procedures. Come cath labs have cangiogram/sent/andgioplast only, others do EP studies and ablations, pacemaker placements and peripheral vascular work.

Compared to general OR these labs can provide you training in serile technique, assisting in cases, but there will be few anesthesia cases. The eqipment is spacilized so this may not transition to genrela or. One hosiptal I work out of has a scrub tech working full time in interventional radiology. RNs working in the cath lab are eligable for CNOR certification, there is also a certifiction for invasive personel given by CCI.

If you will only be a patient transporter there can be better learning jobs for the OR, such as sterile supply or even transporter for an OR. But if they are willing to have you for setting up tables, scrubbingin on cases ect it might be a great learning experience.

Jeremy

Thanks for the info! That is what I was trying to figure out if I was basically going to be transporting patients because I don't want to do that.

What really made me wonder if I would simply be responsible for pt transport was the fact that you don't even have to have a CNA license to work in this position. However, the part that caught my eye was "Assist professional staff in providing patient care in the Cath Lab. Provide technical assistance to Cath Lab staff."

I shall talk to one of the cath lab attendants in the morning and then later this week I plan to meet with the Cath Lab Manager to find out what exactly the position entails.

If it is simply a transport job then I'll probably take a job as an EKG tech...I know I can learn a lot doing that.

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