What do you NOT like about Cath Lab????

Specialties Cardiac

Published

I'm in the process of deciding whether or not to transfer to the cath lab after many years in the ER. I'm totally burned out and need a change but don't want to work in ICU or the floors. I have spoken to a nurse that works there and she had nothing but good things to say about it, but we come from different nursing background/experience. I would really like to know what the bad points of cath lab nursing are.

This cath lab is a non-interventional lab which means pts. have to be transferred out if intervention needed. Doing transfer paperwork is nothing new to me as we do it all the time in ER.

I would love to hear from you all just to have some idea before I go ahead with the change. Thanks!

Poor Wayover having to ciphon through all of these opinions! I wonder what she chose to do...Inquiring minds want to know!

So sorry....been working too much OT! Well check this out....I put in for a transfer to the CL, was called in by the director for an interview. I spent 1 1/2 hrs there as we talked and toured the area. He was very interested and said he would get back with me. A week passed and I called him and he told me that one of his "pool" nurses was thinking of taking the full-time slot but hadn't decided yet. I told him that I would be willing to take the pool slot if I had to, but I really wanted to get in there. He said he would get back with me as soon as this nurse made up his mind.

So 2 more weeks go by and still no word. I emailed and asked "do you want me or not?" and he replies "don't be discouraged...it's just that my pool nurse hasn't decided yet".

I have decided not to wait any longer. If this director is such a wimp that he can't get his pool nurse to make up his mind, then I need to move on. I made it very simple for him saying I would do the pool OR the fulltime position so what's the problem? This has been WEEKS now and the slot remains open, unfilled. My "friends in high places" there at the hospital tell me that this CL director recently got reamed due to going over budget often. I'm thinking that maybe he saw I have reached the "cap" of the staff RN salary and maybe I was too expensive to hire(?). Just a thought since the interview went so well. I just wish he had the b***s to tell me the truth and not just keep putting me off.

So anyway....I'm not going to call him anymore. My next place of interest (actually the only other place of interest) was the OR as a circulating nurse, so I went and interviewed there, and I'm going to start working on 8/15/05 and in January going to the formal 5 month course.

Thanks for the input though guys. It sure looked interesting. I hope this OR thing works out and I have found a new home until I retire. If not, the only other place I would try is the Cath Lab.

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Specializes in Emergency, Cardiac, and Cathlab.

I curently work in a cath lab that does interventions, and can tell you that working there beats all the other departments that i have worked in, which includes the ER and CCU. It is true that doing calls is not something that everyone is cut out for, first of all you need to really force yourself out of bed in the middle of the night, and then you also work with limmited team members (unlike morning hours where you always have plenty of other team members around the cathlab).

besides all that i can tell you that so far that it's about the best place there is, i mean being in the cathlab, has taught me more about cardiology nursing than my previous areas could.

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Specializes in ECMO.

nurses at my hospital love it, but from my pt of view i wouldnt want to work there as a tech or RN. this is the reason

my hospital the RN only circulates and passes meds. the techs only scrub and monitor. very boring. i know some hospitals all 3 get to rotate in every case. so that would be a bit better. all 3 work under the MD license so the techs can circulate and pass meds. the RN can get a "break" and monitor or can get really in it and scrub the case.

i guess it depends on what type of cath lab you work at.

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Specializes in Emergency, Cardiac, and Cathlab.

well Ramiro, the cath lab that i work in, the nurses are the boss, the techs work under us. the nurses get to scrub apart from circulating and adminstrating meds. even if ure just circulating, it's nothing to be ashamed off. its not easy being he circulator. you have to pass on all the med surg equipment, be responsible for documenting the procedure, monitoring the pressure and ecg tracings, admistrating meds, etc... so theres a lot more to the being the circulator (or pressure nurse as we call it here) than just passing on stuff to the scrub personal.

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Specializes in ECMO.
well Ramiro, the cath lab that i work in, the nurses are the boss, the techs work under us. the nurses get to scrub apart from circulating and adminstrating meds. even if ure just circulating, it's nothing to be ashamed off. its not easy being he circulator. you have to pass on all the med surg equipment, be responsible for documenting the procedure, monitoring the pressure and ecg tracings, admistrating meds, etc... so theres a lot more to the being the circulator (or pressure nurse as we call it here) than just passing on stuff to the scrub personal.

here the boss is the cardiologist. the cath lab is a team all equals.

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