What is a telemetry tech?

What skills will I do on a cardiac telemetry floor?

• I may be getting a job as a student nurse technician on a cardiac telemetry floor. At this hospital, they allow students to learn catheterization and suctioning. will i be able to learn these kind of skills on this type of floor? for my med/surg clinical rotation in nursing school i was on a med/surg cardiac telemetry floor and we performed caths and suctions on all different types of patients (AFIB, renal failure, GI bleeds, COPD). these patients were of course on cardiac monitors. however, the human resources consultant made it sound like this "telemetry" floor consists of patients with AFIB, MI, etc. and not really anything else, but i could be wrong! Id like to know if there is a difference between a cardiac telemetry floor and a med/surg cardiac telemetry floor. Should i be expecting a lot of the same things from my clinical rotation? I want to make sure that I will be cathing and suctioning patients as well as learning EKG's!

• Answer:

  A telemetry unit is doing the same med-surg things you have already done. The additional skills will be entirely related to the telemetry, and the special procedures they do. So you will see a heart cath, a recent CABG from ICU, and emergency heart rhythm treatment as it comes up. You will learn some of the heart rhythms and how to measure them correctly. Expect to also have to deal with someone having chest pain and how that is managed.