jrmom

Beyond the scope of Canadian Nurses also.

nope, never one right off the table, but within 2 hours also. Scares you to death when they leave though, you have visions of the fresh clot blowing and the pt bleeding to death. I still cant picture leaving right off the table though, the sheath is still in !! I would be calling security and having the pt placed on a form 1 ( hold) as he/she is a danger to him/herself and obviously cannot make lucid decisions

We also have to live 30 mins of the hospital to take call. WE take call every 2 weeks, either the weekend or the mon-thurs run. We have 5 interventionalists/ 1 EP / 12 invasive cardiologists. They all have office. With our recovery area, we have a total of 15 staff on every day

We have 2 labs: lab A is older equipment(Seimen's) open from 730- 17:30. We do up to 17 cardiac cath cases , either femerol or radial in there. We have 3 RN's and the cardiologist (we are not a teaching hospital) One scrub, one circulator, one hemodynamic nurse. We use to use Rad techs yrs ago and had probs when the tech was not there and we closed the lab. We have a break nurse start at 930 in the morning and she starts to break the nurses one at a time so the lab does not stop . If you ask me, I wouldnt want to be the 17th patient. The staff are exhausted at the end of the day and the Dr is ready to drop, but it is all about the "numbers". Our sick time is horrible and the Overtime is off the charts! We have a very large turnover rate too. Lab B newer GE equipment. That lab is open from 8 am and we do either a permanent pacemaker/ EP study/ ICD implantation until 9 30 . At 930 we do up to 6 PCI's including, Rescues, Primary, Adhocs or booked Out patient/inpatients. That lab runs until 6 pm with the same staff ratio, no techs, only RNs.We do IABP, no surgery at our hospital, we are a stand alone PCI lab We have our recovery area that has 10 beds, 5 chairs. We admit and recovery all patients there. We are also the regional cardiac centre and keep outpatients from other centres for 2 hours post procedure. Our femerol outpatients stay 4 hours post. That unit is open from 6 30 am till 9 30 pm.We also do outpatient cardioversions too daily Our unit is busy!!!! We are tired LOL:yawn:

Hi there nursing 20 yrs CCU/ICU background, now work cath lab for 5 yrs. I love it, great job, BUT highly stressful and competitive with high turnover rate, always vacancies. we have 2 labs 17-20 angiograms a day 4-6 angioplasties a day do cardioversions, implantable defibrillators, EPS, permanent pacemaker implatations (in the OR, but use our nurses) WHEW, lots of OT and on call

Hi There, I work in a cath lab with 2 labs, do about 17 -20 caths a day and 4-6 angioplasties between the 2 labs. I love my job and have been there about 5 yrs.. It is intriguing, intense, fun, rewarding, stressful and exhausting all in one. You are always learning. Each case is dynamic. We have lots of ER RNs that have joined us. I think they find it more of a learning curve as it is so specialized on the cardiac component. I came from CCU/ICU background You need to know your cardiac rhythms. ACLS will help you. You will learn IABPs and the administration of TONS of drugs. I have to say we do have a high turnover, I personally think it is the "dream job", but it is highly competitive between the nurses??????? ( Anybody else get that at your lab?) When you have a bunch of RNs with a "zillion"yrs of experience in cardiac specialties, the tensions and attitudes tend to soar. There is a llot of on call, we do 4 days monday to thurs and 3 days fri -sun for on call. If you get called in, you get 12 hours off after the case, this then puts stress on the day staff to get the labs up and running because you are now down 3 nurses ( on call). This strain is really taking its toll on the staff, our sick time is high, morale down and high turnover. We have no one to replace the RNs off because we have no RN avail to come in. Vicious circle. This is where I work, I dont know what the other labs are like. You wanted it straight from the hip, there you have it, but I truly do LOVE what I do

Oh, you brought tears to my eyes. Thankfully you have been able to come back and I truly believe you are in the field you were meant to be in ( medical). I hope we can all learn from your post. I myself will be more aware of my peers and their well being.

I work in the cath lab\l love my job. I have a conundrum. It has been suggested by one of our Docs that I have a right heart cath to r/o pulmonary hypertension ( rvsp 47) some TR no RVH. He says he knows it will bug me to no end if I dont find out ( he is right btw) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I want to know.!! it is not crucial I have it but I really want to know, having serial echocardiograms for yrs to watch it just doesnt thrill me if I can get the answer with a right heart, right away. The thing is, if I am there for the right, why not just throw a sheath in the artery and do the left for the heck of it( Dr said "sure"). Would love to see my anatomy, very cool. What do you think, should I or not. I could go to a different lab but I really like the Doc I have chosen ( he is fantastic). I know the risks of a left heart cath. Btw, newbie here, this site is fantastic