Cath Lab RN

Things to ask:

1. schedule

2. frequency of call hours

3. on call pay

4. orientation period

I worked with two nurses in the PACU who transferred to the cath lab. One liked it, the other returned to the PACU. The nurse who is still working in the cath lab likes the technical aspects, as well as the $, despite a grueling on-call schedule. The nurse who returned to the PACU did not like the intensity, and felt she was more of a tech than a nurse.

I'm not a cath lab nurse, but as a cardiac patient educator, I work closely with cath lab nurses. And as a union steward, I hear from them when they have a complaint about their jobs.

Our cath lab has had a very stable crew for a long time - they'vbe liked it well enough to stay for many years.

There is a technical side, which some nurses love, others not. But you are dealing with patients at a very vulnerable time where a good nurse can make a real difference. You work closely and intensely with cardiologists, which can be good and bad depending on their personalities.

There does tend to be a lot of call, and occasionally pretty rough hours - work one day, called in two or three times in the night, then work another day. Some people handle that pretty well, others not so much. The up side is that you make a lot of money off that call.

Mostly, you will do routine cases that flow by pretty smoothly, but you will inevitably get the ones that really make your hair stand on end - the patient who comes in in acute anterior MI and is trying to die on the table while the cardiologist is trying to get a balloon pump in. Or the cardiologist who punctures a coronary with a guide wire and the patient is tamponading while you are trying to hold them together long enough for the surgery crew to be called in. The ability to deal with those will depend on: Your own training, the quality of the crew you work with, the kind of docs you work with.

As to questions to ask, the ones from the previous responder are all reasonable, but I'd add a few big ones:

How long have the current crew worked there? - stay away from a lab with a high turnover. A cohesive crew makes all the difference.

How much orientation will you have?

How soon will you have to solo on night call? - you want to make sure you aren't going to be thrown to the wolves before you are ready.

How has the lab handled personality conflicts between staff and physicians? - our lab is a pretty strong bunch and tends to take a unified front with a doc who is acting like a prima donna. And their manager pretty much supports them. But in some places the management will do anything for the docs and one doc who can get away with being a jerk (strongest term I can use here) can make your life miserable.

As a recent 2 time cath patient, I can say that the nurses were highly technically skilled AND they were still utilizing all their bedside skills as well. I felt confident that everyone in that room had ME as their focus.

I did many years of acute dialysis - also requiring both intensive tech skill and bedside knowledge.

Scoochy and Chico both made excellent points.

If the oncall isn't too bad, this may be a great opportunity for you. Best wishes!

Thanks for replying!

I'm just really concerned I don't have the experience. In the two years that I worked in the PACU, I never saw a code (yes, respiratory arrest happened and pt were re-intubated) but never a full cardiac arrest.

Do the CCL nurses have to titrate drips and manage vents while the pt is in the procedure?? I'm concerned about that because I would not be comfortable with that and I wonder if they would train me to do that. My PACU did not have a cardiac surgery program and so I'm not super comfortable with cardiac meds/drips.... any thoughts?