An Interview With A Cardiac Cath Lab Nurse
Ready to learn more about nurses who work beyond the bedside? Nurses who work in the Cardiac Catheterization Lab (CCL) play an important role in cardiac care. Amy Sellers, RN BSN CCRN CSC CMC blogs at Nursing Influence and graciously agreed to give us a peek at what a nurse is responsible for doing in the CCL.
Amy has worked in the Cath Lab for about 6 months now. She previously worked in CVICU for almost 5 years before deciding that she needed a new challenge. She is paid hourly and works three 12 hour shifts per week (all daytime Mon-Fri) with lots of opportunities for overtime and call shifts.
A cath lab is an area of the hospital that uses fluoroscopy and contrast dye to check for narrowing/blockages in arteries or veins in the body. Using special equipment, they are able to perform angioplasty (open the arteries with a balloon), place stents, insert IVC filters (a filter that is inserted into a large vein which prevents blood clots that form in the leg from getting to the lungs) as well as inserting pacemakers/ICDs. ICDs are Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators. They detect if a patient’s heart goes into a lethal rhythm and provides a shock to the heart if necessary to get it beating correctly again.
What do you do all day? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at code blog - tales of a nurse*
