New Grad Nurse working in the Cath Lab.....

Specialties Cardiac

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Alright, so I know right off the bat that most people's opinions is that new grad nurses should not start out working in the Cardiac Cath Lab fresh out of nursing school. New grad nurse meaning wet behind the ears only having nursing school knowledge without the real world practical experience. Often times Cath Labs hire nurses with critical care experience, emergency nursing, tele, step down, cardiology, and so on. My background is in military medicine, but more specifically a mixture of trauma, critical care, preventive medicine, and primary care; and this is in the absence of a medical doctor in the mountains of Afghanistan. I believe that this doesn't mean I will automatically be competent in the Cath Lab as a nurse, but I believe you have to be willing to learn to know what it takes to be an expert Cath Lab nurse and have a good mentor.

On the civilian side I have worked for a few years as an ED tech and continuously picked up shifts on the different specialty floors like orthopedics, cardiology, surgical specialties, neurology, and general medicine. Working on those floors didn't showcase my current knowledge, but gave me a chance to research what areas of nursing would interest me the most and learn as much as I could from the nursing staff about what it takes to be a great nurse in each of those specialties. I am now working in a different hospital as a Cath Lab Tech and this job has by far been the most satisfying and gratifying civilian job I've ever had. There's so much cardiology knowledge to learn inside and outside of the lab. I scrub, record, and circulate (except for passing meds and conscious sedation I can do everything else the circulator role requires like insert urinary catheters, start IVs, balloon pump insertions, etc...) I'm learning all the indications and contraindications for meds the nurses give during regular diagnostic procedures and interventions, which I already have a solid grasp of. I'm on call 4 to 5 nights a week and have done my fair share of STEMIs. Our Cardiologists love to teach (I work at a teaching hospital) and I'm soaking up knowledge like a sponge. I'm will be done with nursing school in about a year and a half and I will be transitioning in our Cath Lab from a tech to a new grad nurse. Is my experience now about as good as it gets without having an RN license? I'm not saying I'm going to start out as an expert, but I am saying that I'm going to learn and do what it takes to be a competent Cath Lab Nurse.

I know there is already some resistance from other nurses that don't even work in the Cath Lab, but they also don't know my background experience. What would you guys think about a new grad like me working in your Cath lab?

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Specializes in CICU.

The good news for you, is that it isn't up to any of us.

Regardless of whether new grads belong there (no, IMO, but what do I know), where I am it seems like a place where not only do they require critical care experience, but it seems like one of the gigs that you don't get a shot at until you "pay some dues" somewhere else. In other words, there are probably plenty of experienced nurses that already work in the system that want the job.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I am now working in a different hospital as a Cath Lab Tech and this job has by far been the most satisfying and gratifying civilian job I've ever had. There's so much cardiology knowledge to learn inside and outside of the lab. I scrub, record, and circulate (except for passing meds and conscious sedation I can do everything else the circulator role requires like insert urinary catheters, start IVs, balloon pump insertions, etc...) I'm learning all the indications and contraindications for meds the nurses give during regular diagnostic procedures and interventions, which I already have a solid grasp of. I'm on call 4 to 5 nights a week and have done my fair share of STEMIs. Our Cardiologists love to teach (I work at a teaching hospital) and I'm soaking up knowledge like a sponge. I'm will be done with nursing school in about a year and a half and I will be transitioning in our Cath Lab from a tech to a new grad nurse. Is my experience now about as good as it gets without having an RN license? I'm not saying I'm going to start out as an expert, but I am saying that I'm going to learn and do what it takes to be a competent Cath Lab Nurse.

I know there is already some resistance from other nurses that don't even work in the Cath Lab, but they also don't know my background experience. What would you guys think about a new grad like me working in your Cath lab?

Having worked in a cath lab.....we only had a 2 man call....the tech and me. I depended heavily on the techs. This was before digital equipment and we had to run our pressures on paper and manually figure out gradients. Heck we still did dye curves! LOL

While I believe that most new grads should NOT be in cath lab....and a combat medic does NOT prepare you to be a nurse.....your cath lab tech experience WILL make you a great candidate for the cath lab.

You might miss being a teach....the nursing role is 80% teaching and waiting 10% meds and 10% Holy crap!!!!

I wish you the best!

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Thank you.... Yeah there are some nursing aspects that you learn in combat medic school, but it is not the same as what nurses do on the floor. Being a combat medic is more like a "stepping stone" to becoming a Physician Assistant or Medical Doctor in that you will actually diagnose and treat medical conditions, and all that really depends on the type of unit you're assigned to, willingness to learn, having MD & PA mentors, and actual experience in remote places far-forward from any medical hospitals.

I'm choosing to become a RN because of the holistic whole-person approach Nurse Practitioners bring to the table; my ultimate goal is to become a Nurse Practitioner and you can't do that without putting in your time/experience as a RN.

The Cath Lab/Cardiovascular services will be my main home and what I stick too, but I will try to do some cross training to Emergency Nursing as well; emergency medicine was my first love and I can't stray to far from my roots!

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I see that this post was almost two years ago - how has it worked out for you, working in the Cath Lab as a new grad?

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