Telemetry

[Elizabeth19]

sorry for my primitivity, but what do they do in telemetry? I noticed that most of the job offers for new grads are in telemetry? In what area do you recommend a new graduate to work in the hospital? thanks

[CarVsTree]

Hi Elizabeth

Telemetry is where the patient where's a portable cardiac monitor that transmits the signal to a monitor(s) in the nurse's station(s). The nurse monitor's the monitor.

You can work on units that are telemetry but are cardiac units primarily or other specialty units like orthopedics or trauma (where I work) that has a limited numer of "tele" beds (we have 8 tele beds out of 28).

HTH.

[chachh, BSN, RN]

I graduated last May and started on Tele. I like it for the most part. As mentioned before the patients wear portable leads/box to monitor cardiac rhythms. At my hospital there is a monitor room where monitor techs watch the rhythms, as well as at the nursing stations. What is good about starting on a tele floor is you learn all about the heart. Learn to read rhythms, learn about cardiac meds, learn to take care of patients with higher acuities, get ACLS training, open-heart pt training, cath lab training, 12-lead training, etc. And once you have cardiac under your belt you have a whole lotta choices opening up to you. (CICU, ICU, open-hear surg, plus cardiac dr offices, really anywhere you want to go). Of course now adays (at least where I live) you don't really have to have the experience to start where you really want, but a lot of my friends have pigeon holed themselves in certain specialties and have mentioned they wish they would have started out in a broader enironment. At my hospital we have 2 floors of tele, with about 70 beds. No step down unit so we are it. And the staff I work with are very supportive. I am constantly asking questions and verifying rhythms and getting advice from them. I have learned alot!

[SherryBSN]

I graduated in Dec '05 and have been hired into the cardiac float pool. The first floor I have been training on is Telemetry. We do not have monitor techs, the strips are our responsibility. We are a top 100 hospital in Eastern Ky and very busy. All of our beds are telemetry beds on this floor (30). We also hand all the major drips on our floor. Sometimes I feel very overwhelmed but I have a preceptor and so far things are going ok. There is an opening on this floor and I am debating applying for it, I just cant decide if it would be better to float..I would have to float between Telemetry, the Cardiac Surgical floor, chest pain unit, and the Cardiac ICU stepdown. I wonder if it wouldnt be better to stay on Telemetry and learn everything I can first. If i bid on the full time position I am required to stay a year on that floor. Any suggestions?

[zacarias, ASN, RN]

I remember when I first told my Dad I was gonna work on a telemetry unit. He wondered if it might be against my beliefs LOL. He was thinking something related to telepathy!

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

you will find many advertisements for telemetry units because there are many openings. telemetry units are very busy. i worked on a stepdown unit (same as telemetry) for 5 years. if you like excitement, but not as much as icu, and have a strong work ethic (you won't be taking many breaks when you work these units), then you just might like telemetry. however, i don't recommend them for new graduates just coming out of nursing school because of the pace and stress of working in them and having to learn the job of being a nurse as well--too much stress for a new grad. some of these links explain what telemetry is very nicely.

http://community.nursingspectrum.com/magazinearticles/article.cfm?aid=6836 - telemetry nursing: getting to the heart of the matter. five nurses talk about their work on telemetry units.

http://bostonworks.boston.com/globe/job_explainer/archives/062903.shtml - an article entitled "telemetry nurse" gives you a good thumbprint of what a telemetry nurse does

http://www2.montgomeryhospital.org/page.php?pid=136 - nurses speak out about their rewarding careers: telemetry

http://www.adena.org/services/treatment/inpatient/stepdown%20unit.htm - this is a good description of a telemetry or stepdown unit that was produced for the population this particular hospital services.

http://www.discovernursing.com/default.aspx - discover nursing. a very good informational site for anyone contemplating going into nursing. there is a lot of information to read here!