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Discussion

Fellow ECMO nurses

Just for my own knowledge, wondering what your roles are when caring for an ECMO patient at your facility & whether you needed certification/ extra training?

My unit (CVICU) has a large volume of ECMO patients. These assignments are 1:1. No perfusion in house at night (which is my shift). We take a MCS class on orientation and then annually get a refresher.

A lot of these patients also require CRRT, maybe an Impella, an IABP... some also not sedated & are extubated with a little ICU delirium (and your anxiety is on level 100 the whole night)

Sometimes I wonder if I should get an ECMO specialist certification... is it worth it? Would I be able to broaden my knowledge base?(and maybe get a PRN job somewhere). Sometimes I also wonder if a job in perfusion would be something I’d enjoy.

I already am an ECMO “champion” meaning I help educate staff, go on transports, help during bedside cannulation & whatnot

What other experiences do you guys have?

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    I’m an ECMO nurse in a CTICU, and an ECMO primer/educator in another role. I don’t have any formal specialty certification for it though — who offers it? I just have CCRN, and ACLS/PALS. Taking CSC soon.

    I thought about perfusion for a bit too, but after shadowing a bypass case in the OR I decided I liked the craziness of the ICU a lot better. I’d recommend shadowing if you can!

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    Thomas Jefferson and some other places have an ECMO specialist course, but they are expensive ~$3000 and not particularly standardized. ELSO website would be a good start for you. My hospital runs a quarterly ECMO course for staff to be internally "ECMO certified".

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    We take a 2 day ECMO specialist class and then perfusion is there your first few shifts. Also quarterly wet labs (skills lab) as refreshers. Our ECMOs are 2:1. Only one of the nurses needs to be an ECMO specialist but it seems crazy to me that you'd have to manage the ECMO circuit without perfusion present AND manage the patient/CVVH/Impella as well. I'm not usually grateful for our ratios, so thanks for the reminder that it could always be worse!

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    wow, we have an ECMO specialist with RN at bedside for ECMO pt. Scary for me to imagine being the only RN running the show, especially on night shifts. 

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