Your Experience with Your Hospitals Cath Lab Personnel?

[Nursing_Mamacita]

So thanks to training, I had to spend 2 days in my hospitals Cath Lab. I had previously noticed that the ED and ICUs were their own "little town", as we call it, but I hadn't imagined that Cath Lab would be the same. Don't get me wrong, they didn't treat me badly, but it was just...awkward. Cliquish, very cliquish. Some of them even sat and bad mouthed nurses audibly in front of me. In our Cath Lab, there is only 1 RN, the rest are RCIS. The docs even loved them...and apparently they all go out occasionally and include the MDs. I mean daaaang, I can't even get docs to put in their orders half the time! haha.

So if you have RCIS in your hospital, what are their general regards toward other hospital personnel? Do you work in a cath lab? What is the general atmosphere of the unit?

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

RCIS=???

[MunoRN, RN]

RCIS=???

CVIT (cath lab tech) with a certification.

[LindaB73]

Registered Cardiovascular Invasive Specialist

[MunoRN, RN]

I occasionally float to the Cath lab, and yes it a different atmosphere than being on the floor or unit, although it's pretty similar to the "chummy" atmosphere of a GI lab, OR, and pretty much anywhere that Physicians and staff work together. I don't notice any "bad mouthing" of Nurses by our techs, and can't really imagine them doing so, but you'll find people who talk bad about others pretty much anywhere. The relationships between the Physicians and the techs is often more friendly than with other staff but that's because they've usually spent much more time with the techs.

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

Thank you.

[Anna Flaxis, BSN, RN]

I haven't worked Cath Lab, but I've hung around and observed a few times when I've taken a STEMI patient there, and everyone was friendly toward me.

[Nursetastic]

Our cath lab crew has cliquish, bratty, holier-than-thou behavior. They complain about everything from IV's in an awkward place (um, at least you have one on that 80 year old, dehydrated patient!) to patients that smell bad. Yes, cath lab nurse, I'd love to bathe this unstable STEMI patient. Nothing like the turn of death just so you prisses don't have to smell foot cheese for an hour in the cath lab. But I WILL let you borrow my wintergreen oil to use on your mask if it makes you happy. To say that cath lab is tacky in my hospital is an understatement. I'm very interested in working there, but not until about 4 of their crew are gone.

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

Same here. The cath lab people are obnoxiously superior acting, regularly neglect to check the chart and make sure orders are done before returning the patient and they don't hesitate to badmouth nurses right in front of them and to question them on basic protocols that have been in place for ages. I don't get it but it does make working with them unpleasant and less than collegial. I am sure they are good at what they do, but it doesn't mean I am not.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Cath labs tend to be tight knit groups, they tend to be very opinionated...and not very subtle. There job requires them to be bold and kind of arrogant.....secure....self assured...it's the nature of the position.

There is a very close relationship with the Techs and the MD's they are integral to the MD.....like a first assist in the OR to a surgeon. These folks are at the top of their field. Yes they go out together (a lot) they are considered more like peers.... they have parties with each other....they spend a lot of close time together all hours of the day and night. Do they have to be jerks? No....but no one can make you feel inferior unless you let them.

I have to say that I'm sorry....just because a MI is unstable is no excuse for not bathing them. I have bathed an unstable vented bilateral ventricular assist device with an open chest, balloon pump and 14 pumps with a linen change....It can be done. Its hard work...but it can be done.

Stable or not...patients need to be clean...to feel cared for.....even if it is a face, mouth, pit and private...it's still counts....and washing crud off their feet doesn't include turning. If I recieved a patient that smelled...unless they were directly from the street.... I'd be pretty unhappy myself. I have worked both sides of the stretcher and I see both sides. Patients going for certain tests need a certain size IV catheter for safety reasons. Another is positioning in cath lab and draping the patient......they still need to have access to the IV......that is why they are so specific. I never made a big deal for I would start my own or have the MD pace a venous line.

But I am easy going. Most of the time.

Orders on a post op cath are not the responsibility of the cath lab unless they are stats. Kind of like the recovery room and a post op. I know that some are lazy and don't look further than their nose....but I don't think it is the rule.

I will say however....the worst workplace bully I ever met was a male nurse (he was a real jerk actually) with less experience than I in nursing, but had experience in the cath lab. I made it publicly clear that I will not be bullied and if he felt threatened by my extensive experience and superior knowledge I wold be happy to mentor him. He stopped.

[netglow, ASN, RN]

Some insight I've had about some labs. Cath lab "monitor techs" are often the entitled relatives of MDs - radiologists, cardiologists etc. Used to be, there was no real education involved in that, also, no certification either - just on the job training in many hospitals. I got the low down about that when I was a student and in the cath lab one week. Those peeps bring in a good buck too! At that time, some were getting rad tech certs, for "the paper" should someone decide that there should be SOMETHING edu-wise involved. I'd figure it's a great find for a tech without having to drop the money for much education "if" that's required at all. The bossy stuff comes from the entitled part and the lack of education part, and not wanting to eventually be "found out" part :)

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

What monitor tech? in cath lab? My experience has been only with CV certified Rad techs.