Cath Lab Capstone

Nursing Students General Students

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I'm in my last semesters for BSN and just recently got placed in the adult cath lab for capstone. I'm the only one in my cohort of 90 to be in the cath lab, and historically there's only been a few so there's not a lot of people to talk to.

Anyone out here has/had the cath lab as a capstone? I was wondering what the nursing STUDENT experience was like.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Wow - that's a very interesting opportunity. Since you'll be working closely with physicians, you may have an opportunity to actually do more "hands on" than your colleagues in other areas..... because physicians have a much broader range of discretion when it comes to delegation & supervision. It's a great place to really learn cardiac anatomy and hemodynamics. If the facility does both diagnostic and therapeutic caths, you may have an opportunity to be involved in procedures that are basically "CV surgery Lite" such as placing stents and ablations. Very cool stuff.

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That IS cool. Ask a lot of questions after you've prepared by reading up on hemodynamics and procedures. You may fall in love c it and network your way into a great situation.

We didn't do "capstones" but my senior year I got a four-week optional rotation with a nurse who was part of a critical care research project, and it put me into that for twenty years.

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Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

I didn't have a capstone clinical course. However, I did have a rotation where I spent a week on the surgical units. I really liked the cath lab, as opposed to the main OR. I learned so much while I was in the cath lab. One of the docs who had patients frequently there is also a med school attending. He was such a great teacher, I always felt like I should be taking notes when he spoke...LOL :)

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