Is cath lab considered critical care?

rjflyn, ASN, RN · Feb 25, 2009

The test would be this- would they take the experience for you to get in to a CRNA program ie most these require X amount of time in critical care. At one time I thought about becoming one. At the time my 13+yrs of ED time didn't cut it, even when you counted holding ICU pts and all we do. I would guess the Cath Lab most likely wouldn't fit the bill either.

allnurses Guide · Feb 25, 2009

I'd think no, just because there are no critical care-trained nurses in there. If there is a vented patient etc, they need the ICU nurse to stay there (at least at my facility).

kellykelly · Feb 26, 2009

There are critical-care trained nurses in our CCL.

nightshift82 · Feb 26, 2009

I recently took a position CCL in a local hospital. It is diagnostic only but all staff is currently/or has come from a critical care unit. Vented patients do come to the CCL and the nurse will manage both if the pt is stable enough hemodynamically. There are emergent situations that may require ACLS, Intra Aortic Ballon pump or Temp Pacing. It does not happen very often but you always need to be ready and I believe it in more of an issue in a lab where interventions are done.

I also currently work 12hr nights at another hospital in the CCU and we have emergent PCI's- these patients can intially be very unstable before they receive their stent(s) requiring Defib/Pacing/and emergent meds.

So I guess my answer is yes. Sorry it took so long to get there:wink2:

Roy Fokker, BSN, RN · Feb 28, 2009

The test would be this- would they take the experience for you to get in to a CRNA program ie most these require X amount of time in critical care.

Yes - but not all CRNA programs/schools have the same "accepting parameters" - just as not all flight nursing programs have the same accepting parameters.

E.g.: If I completed my CEN and went across the state border (40 miles away), I'd be accepted into their premier flight nursing program. But if I was at my old job (in the mid-west), the CEN held no water unless I could show that I'd done some time in an ICU. Apparently different facilities (as this thread shows) get to define what is considered "critical care" as they see fit....

Vented patients do come to the CCL and the nurse will manage both if the pt is stable enough hemodynamically.

I am curious though - what about unstable patients? Does the CCL nurse manage those as well?

I see your point about your current staff as having prior CCU/ICU experience. To play the devil's advocate, one could argue (for example) that the vast majority of ED/ICU jobs encourage prospective job applicants to have 'experience' preferably in CCU/ICU/ED but at the very least in Med-Surg before applying ... even though the skill sets acquired in Med-Surg (or other areas of nursing) have only a limited relation/effect to working in an ED/ICU.*

Interesting question, nevertheless. I guess it sits right alongside the other old thread discussing a similar issue: "ER nursing, is it considered critical care?"

cheers,

* : It's a limited relation in as much as pretty much any field of nursing is "interchangeable". You can't make a med-surg nurse work the ICU in as much as you can make an ICU nurse work the ED in as much as you can make an ED nurse work Dialysis! The recycled, old, inaccurate garbage of "a nurse, is a nurse, is a nurse, is a nurse" has GOT TO GO! We are not interchangable round-pegs to be hammered into square-holes as the need arises.

Would you have a Dermatologist take care of your family member suffering from a stroke? How about a Cardiologist taking care of your family member needing a hip replacement? See what I mean?

Ruby Vee, BSN · Feb 28, 2009

at my old hospital, the cath lab hired a bunch of med-surg nurses who don't even know their rhythms. i guess they don't consider the cath lab a critical care area.

rjflyn, ASN, RN · Feb 28, 2009

Well I have been in enough places that so I have seen enough things. Roy your flight nurse thing is very accurate as I was flying one place and needed different experience even before I thought of flying where I was at the next place. As it is some cath labs only do diagnostic procedures on stable patients, I did critical care transport of these pts from a said facility for there intervention after they found their total occluded left mains or what not. They in fact actually had to call a nurse from their own ICU when they had a pt on the balloon pump. So it might vary from place to place.

GilaRRT · Feb 28, 2009

All this CRNA school says this and my hospital hires med/surge nurses that has nothing to do with the price of tea in Chine IMHO. I do not care if you have a perfectly hemodynamically stable person on the table, once you place a catheter into their RCA, you immediately have a critical patient. Thus, you are in a critical care situation.

In addition, the ER nurse situation does not apply IMHO. You can go several shifts and be hard pressed to take care of somebody even moderately ill. Other shifts, you are pounded by critical patients. ER is a mixed bag; however, I will say it again, when you put a catheter into somebody's heart, the said person should be considered critical 100% of the time.

Hospitals that choose to staff cath labs (even diagnostic labs) with nurses who do not have solid critical care experience, do themselves and their patients a great disservice.

nightshift82 · Feb 28, 2009

Hospitals that choose to staff cath labs (even diagnostic labs) with nurses who do not have solid critical care experience, do themselves and their patients a great disservice.

I agree completely! Just had critical unstable patient PCI several stents, intubated, IABP etc. Don't ask about the "several " stents- that is one of the issues.