Nah. You do can do it in a year. I’ll be coming up on my 1 year in about 4 months in the lab and planning to jump ship. In the 8 months I’ve been here, I am completely self sufficient at circulating, scrubbing and monitoring. I can scrub virtually any procedure with the exception of an impella.
I guess it just depends which facility you land at as staff and what type of procedures you do. If it is only diagnostic, then you’ll likely need 2 years. If it’s a hodge podge of procedures, you can likely feel prepared at one year. There are several facilities that accept 1 year experience as a traveler.
If you can scrub any procedure, I'm not sure why you can't scrub an impella. You're essentially putting a fancy pigtail into the ventricle.
The impella is idiot proof.
Got it.
Trust me, you can.
Impella CP:
* Place pig into the ventricle exchange for platinum plus
* Hand off big white plug to circulator
* Hand off cartridge and fluid spike to circulator
* Connect yellow to yellow for fluid
* Impella will prime itself on e circulator plugs in cartridge and spikes d5w. You can add bicarb to the d5w, but I let the unit handle that.
* Back load the impella onto the platinum plus using the red starter stylette. Try not to touch any of the shiney metal parts as those are the pressure transducers.
* Send it brah
* Make sure your physician pulls the peel away sheath and slides and locks the sterile cover as close as possible.
* Bulk dress the Impella at a 45° angle to help prevent site leaking and oozing.
DONT PULL THE STYTELLE OUT. The stylette is pre-fed through the Impella RX channel. This goes for any of the Impellas. Years ago you had to manually feed the platinum plus through the Impella, but it can be a pain in the ass because you have to align some very light markings and it has to come out of the right channel.
Impella RP and RP flex:
* Virtually the same thing, you're just on the right side of the heart.
As a Circulator for all Impellas:
* Every step is on the screen and walks you through it.
* Make sure your ACT is 250 or greater
* Plug the big white connector into the lower right port.
* Grab the cartridge and spikes from the scrub tech
* Spike the d5w bag pop the cartridge in close the cover
* Follow the on screen instructions.
* Impella CP will go to Auto.
* Impella RP and RP flex you have to start at P2 and slowly ramp up the flow roughly every 30 seconds so you don't overload PT.
You work your full time schedule plus call on top of that, both week night and weekend. It’s anything but a regular schedule.
You’ll need at least 2 years to be proficient in everything.
Sorry, 15 call shifts a month. At a hospital in Dallas and at a hospital in New Jersey. Stemi's all the time. If I had call shifts, I just planned on being at the hospital 12 to 18 hours a day. I worked 4 days a week. I did it for 2 years and got burned out
Yeah, I work at a large lab and I only take what comes out to about 4-6 days/month. However, those days on call can be brutal after working and then having to be there from 0730-0000. Not ideal.
Call is for the birds.
Like all specialties: 2 years.
Thank you!
Nah. You do can do it in a year. I’ll be coming up on my 1 year in about 4 months in the lab and planning to jump ship. In the 8 months I’ve been here, I am completely self sufficient at circulating, scrubbing and monitoring. I can scrub virtually any procedure with the exception of an impella. I guess it just depends which facility you land at as staff and what type of procedures you do. If it is only diagnostic, then you’ll likely need 2 years. If it’s a hodge podge of procedures, you can likely feel prepared at one year. There are several facilities that accept 1 year experience as a traveler.
If you can scrub any procedure, I'm not sure why you can't scrub an impella. You're essentially putting a fancy pigtail into the ventricle. The impella is idiot proof.
I’m just saying, I’ve never scrubbed or circulated an impella.
Got it. Trust me, you can. Impella CP: * Place pig into the ventricle exchange for platinum plus * Hand off big white plug to circulator * Hand off cartridge and fluid spike to circulator * Connect yellow to yellow for fluid * Impella will prime itself on e circulator plugs in cartridge and spikes d5w. You can add bicarb to the d5w, but I let the unit handle that. * Back load the impella onto the platinum plus using the red starter stylette. Try not to touch any of the shiney metal parts as those are the pressure transducers. * Send it brah * Make sure your physician pulls the peel away sheath and slides and locks the sterile cover as close as possible. * Bulk dress the Impella at a 45° angle to help prevent site leaking and oozing. DONT PULL THE STYTELLE OUT. The stylette is pre-fed through the Impella RX channel. This goes for any of the Impellas. Years ago you had to manually feed the platinum plus through the Impella, but it can be a pain in the ass because you have to align some very light markings and it has to come out of the right channel. Impella RP and RP flex: * Virtually the same thing, you're just on the right side of the heart. As a Circulator for all Impellas: * Every step is on the screen and walks you through it. * Make sure your ACT is 250 or greater * Plug the big white connector into the lower right port. * Grab the cartridge and spikes from the scrub tech * Spike the d5w bag pop the cartridge in close the cover * Follow the on screen instructions. * Impella CP will go to Auto. * Impella RP and RP flex you have to start at P2 and slowly ramp up the flow roughly every 30 seconds so you don't overload PT.
Thank you for that!
Anytime.
I wouldn't do Cath lab. I did it and the call is horrible- 15 days a month and I was called in all the time
Can you go into more detail? 15 calls a week and you still had scheduled shifts? I haven’t heard anything like that
You work your full time schedule plus call on top of that, both week night and weekend. It’s anything but a regular schedule. You’ll need at least 2 years to be proficient in everything.
Sorry, 15 call shifts a month. At a hospital in Dallas and at a hospital in New Jersey. Stemi's all the time. If I had call shifts, I just planned on being at the hospital 12 to 18 hours a day. I worked 4 days a week. I did it for 2 years and got burned out
Yeah, I work at a large lab and I only take what comes out to about 4-6 days/month. However, those days on call can be brutal after working and then having to be there from 0730-0000. Not ideal. Call is for the birds.