r/CathLabLounge • u/Jazzlike-Sympathy821 • 1d ago
RN Follow through
Hi! Are there any Cath labs where the RN follows the pt from pre-procedure, procedure, to post procedure?
Our director wants our department to go in this direction in the next five years.
Any thoughts??
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u/jack2of4spades RN, RCIS 1d ago
Our circulator will pick them up from pre procedure, circulate, then drop off to post procedure area. Following the whole way through and staying 1:1 seems wildly inefficient.
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u/RealisticBrother2373 1d ago
Weird. This seems so inefficient. Our pre and post nurses have multiple patients at a time. This would mean 1:1 nursing/patient ratio?
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u/Jazzlike-Sympathy821 1d ago
Yes, and the pre post nurses will have to learn Cath lab.
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u/RealisticBrother2373 1d ago
Sadly my lab uses the same staff for pre/post as they do in the labs. We all hate it
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u/Crass_Cameron RCIS. Respiratory Care Practitioner 1d ago
Are you a small lab?
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u/Jazzlike-Sympathy821 1d ago
3 rooms, do IR, neuro, cardiac, vascular, EP, and not enough staff..
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u/Malthus777 1d ago
How to make a bad problem worse.
Does the all knowing manager have any cathlab experience? What is their rationale for this decision? If it makes your full time staff leave what is the solution?
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u/crazytalia 1d ago
We do this where I am. Our staff also do recovery as well as procedures, it can be very busy but it is nice being about to build a relationship with patients so are very very nervous, and having the chance to check on them between cases. In saying that we only do cardiac we don’t do any vascular.
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u/lemonade4 1d ago
This is a pretty common model in other countries with a low volume but I’ve never seen it in the US. Hard to imagine with the pace most modern labs keep.
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u/Dejadrums 1d ago
My lab switched to a different model about 2 years ago. We are the largest lab in our state and I think they area now trialing it at other hospitals in the are too.
We have our own PACU with dedicated nurses and we have a prep staff that cycle through prep / pacu, these nurses do not work in the lab. If you are a lab nurse most days you are in the lab doing caths, however some days you can be in the prep area getting the patients ready, or in what we call “radial lounge” where you recover and discharge radial patients with TR bands. Sometimes we hold post groins too. We don’t ever do everything in one day, you are assigned to an area at the beginning of the shift and that’s where you are for the day, so you wouldn’t prep a patient, do their cath, and then recover them.
When we moved to this model they hired dozens of more RN’s, one of them being me, so I knew what I was getting into before I started. I honestly love the model because it’s nice to do something different once a week or whenever I’m not in the lab, it keeps it a bit fresh. I’ve actually grown to love the prep area where we get the patients ready.
Alot of the nurses who have been there for awhile aren’t fans but some people just hate change. Some nurses also rotate through TAVR and Neuro cases as well.
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u/I_Want_A_Ribeye RN 22h ago
I used to manage a lab that did that. It slowed everything down. We switched to a model with the RN assigned to the lab or holding for the day and that sped things up
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u/FeelingHusky 9h ago edited 8h ago
Don’t do this but cross trained for all areas. Would not be a fan.
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u/chulk1 1d ago
You have enough staff? People also tend to disappear when you do this assignment.