telemetry nurses

christvs, DNP, RN, NP · Oct 13, 2005

Hi! I'm a new RN (graduated in May 2005) & my first job as a nurse has been on a med/surg/tele unit. I usually get 4-5 patients (I work 3-11 PM) on my shift. You just need to take a class on how to read tele strips. I'm ok at interpreting them now, but will ask a more experienced nurse to double-check them for me if I'm not sure. After a while you will become more familiar with recognizing certain rhythms & it gets a little easier. I like it so far,even when it gets so busy!

-Christine

bluestar · Oct 13, 2005

Your employer should offer a basic EKG or rhythym-strip interpretation course. That's a good place to start. "EKGs made incredibly easy" by Springhouse is a good book for your library, as is "Rapid interpretation of EKGs" by Dale Dubin. With practice and time you'll do fine. Good luck.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Oct 13, 2005

To me telemetery is as hard as med-surg. It's busy challenging, hard work.

The rhythm strips are not that hard to master once you get into practice.

Good luck!

andre · Oct 13, 2005

I'm a new grad on tele, too, and I looooooooooooooooove it! Yes, you will feel a little lost at first, looking at all those squiggles on the monitor. You WILL get it--and your hospital should be providing you a dysrhythmia class. Ours was 16 hours with an exam at the end, because we have to be "certified" to work tele--basically, you need to be able to recognize two rhythms IMMEDIATELEY--vfib and vtach. Almost everything else you've got a minute or two to run it by another RN if you're not sure. Of course, if your rhythm is a sinus brady in the 30s and it's dropping--well, maybe you don't have two minutes for that....

The other thing you MUST remember is that, even if your monitor is alarming vtach for the 50th time that shift, and every other time it's been nothing...you MUST go check your patient! The other advice I would give you is, lung sounds and heart sounds are pretty important in these patients, so it never hurts to get a second set of ears to listen if you're feeling unsure. When I was in orientation we had a patient admitted with COPD and you could hear her wheezing while standing next to her....but you couldn't hear the wheezes on auscultation--her lung sounds were just very diminished. So I made my preceptor listen, because I thought I was just a moron--and she said the same thing! A few instances like this have made me feel a little more confident in my assessment skills.

Anyway, I know how overwhelmed you feel! I just started in July. I work day shift, and our usual patient load is 4-5. You will do great! Just be patient with yourself.

Andrea

shyone2005 · Oct 13, 2005

thank you so much for the respond... reading your responses make me feel better about the job offer.. i guess one of the challenges i will face is reading the strips which i don't really have a problem with... i was just worried because nursing students and other nurses who were non telemetry nurses told me that they will never work on a telemetry unit because cardiac patients are always coding and are in very critical condition...

so how busy is telemetry compared to others?? just curious.