Cath Lab

Monday was my second week on the cardiac floor for clinical.  We were assigned one patient to do an entire head-to-toe assessment, set of vitals, and chart our findings. 

As I began, my assessment was brief, because my patient had to go down to the cath lab to get an angiogram.  Once the patient and I got down to the waiting room in the cath lab I choose to ask more subjective questions.  My patient was a 35 year old female, only two years older than me.  I tried quickly to gain trust by talking about things that interested her.  Once in the cath lab I made sure to make eye contact and we exchanged glances throughout the procedure.  When she was done, we talked briefly and I felt a connection made, by being near her throughout the angiogram. 

Once we were back in her room, for my three areas of focused assessments I chose heart (because of the chest pains she was admitted for), lungs (because she is a smoker), and skin (because she just had an angiogram in the femoral artery that needed to be checked every 15 minutes).  During the heart assessment I felt awkward placing my stethoscope near the apex because I didn’t want to violate her privacy and go under her gown, but she didn’t seem bothered after I started so I continued.  While I observed my nurse doing a heart assessment later in the morning, I could she didn’t think twice at listening to those areas and I figured in time I’ll feel less intrusive.  What I liked about my nurse and different from the nurse I shadowed for an hour the Monday prior, was that she knocked on the door before entering.  I like this tactic and will use it in the future for my patients.

I was so impressed while sitting next to the CT Tech and listening while he explained what the doctor was doing during the angiogram.  He pointed out major arteries while the doctor pumped dye and the heart was visible on the screen in front of me.  I couldn’t help but gasp and say “that’s cool”.  As I looked out from behind the glass lead protecting windows I saw huge machines on tracks that moved around effortlessly.  Once in awhile these machines banged into each other and I wasn’t sure if maybe it was the doctor operated them or they did that on their own.  Either way I’m still pretty impressed with the cardiac floor.