Potential interest

[Morgan0819]

Okay so quick question to those who work in any capacity with cardiac patients. I currently work a trauma med-surg floor, and while it's okay, it's not something I feel too crazy about doing for the long haul. The patients I enjoy having on our floor are the cardiothoracic patients. I like seeing those with pod ___ to those coming in for CABG workup. I've just really like those more than the other patients I've seen on the floor. What all does cardiac nursing entail? What is the best way to getting into this kind of specialty. Little note of my background, I've worked psych, general med-surg, trauma med-surg, transplants (mostly kidney with some livers and whipple patients) and briefly in the areas of eating disorders, forensics, and LTAC.

Yes, I know my career has been scattered, but ever since I burned myself out on psych I haven't found my niche yet.

[Mavnurse17, BSN, RN]

Hello!

I was a cardiac nurse on a busy cardiothoracic PCU at a major university hospital system for a year and a half. I guess it depends on what exact floor you transition to; my last hospital had 4 telemetry floors, but 1 was a lung/thoracic specialty unit, 2 were general "tele-surg" floors, and the floor I was on specialized in cardiac surgery/heart transplants/LVADs/heart failure.

I call it "tele-surg" because these patients were like typical med-surg patients that were admitted for general conditions that required cardiac monitoring, and med-surg nurses weren't tele certified. These patients were CP'ers, syncope work-ups, HTN, etc. When I floated to those floors I felt like I was providing pretty general nursing care but with the skill of reading/interpretting EKGs. Patient ratio on those floors are usually 5:1

Nursing care on a highly specialized cardiac unit like the one I was on is verryyyy different. You'll be caring for pre and post-op transplants, CABGs, pacemaker placements, caths; you'll care for patients in CHF exacerbation; you may occasionally get overflow from those 'tele-surg' floors. You'll need to familiarize yourself with the common gtts used on that kind of floor: amio, nicardipine, primacor, dobutamine, lasix, bumex, just to name a few. We printed tele strips every 4 hours. The ratio on my floor was supposed to be 3:1 but occasionally we'd be flexed up to 4.

It sounds like you have experience in med-surg and trauma med-surg, so you'd be a good candidate to transition into cardiac! I started as a new grad (after teching on that floor for a year), and it was such an intense learning experience.