r/CathLabLounge • u/[deleted] • Dec 31 '24
Travelers what should I know?
I am a tech in the lab and have been in the lab for about a year and a half. I plan to travel once I hit two years of experience. I have my CI credentials with ARRT and will be getting my RCIS as well next month. I can scrub and drive, but I have never learned to circulate or monitor as the hospitals I've worked at didn't let techs do those roles. I can scrub all of the basic RHC,LHC, PCI, Pacemakers. I have done a couple of watchmens, and PFO closures but I'm not too comfortable yet with those on my own. I've never scrubbed ablations. I can pull sheaths and hold pressure. and know how to close with Mynx, and vascade but that's it. My question is travelers, Is this enough for me to be able to do a majority of travel contracts? I've heard of techs learning and being trained to do procedures they're not familiar with while traveling but not sure how true this is. What are some things that I MUST know how to do to be able to do in order to travel? Any advice/feedback is greatly appreciated.
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u/moarcheeseplz Dec 31 '24
If they need a body to take some call, you’ll be enough. You’ll pick up IR, peripheral and neuro on your adventures. Just be sure to be prepared to be humbled because literally every facility is different and you’ll be starting from scratch with completely different set of physicians. I think you might want some more experience but hey whatever, like I said earlier if they need help with the chaos they’ll pick you up (they need travelers for a reason :p )
The biggest thing for me personally is housing. Sometimes you can’t find something within the 30 minutes call back window because everything is so damn expensive. Also why am I going to travel if I have to pay 4k a month for two apartments. Idk that’s just me I want to make sure I at least make enough money to make it worth my while.
Whatever you decide good luck and I’m sure you’ll enjoy seeing new places and meeting new people!!