I can’t believe it! We are now over half way through our program and have completed our first lab block! Time has gone by so fast these past few months and I am amazed at how much I have learned. I have been spending this past week at the hospital for my first integrated practice experience working hands on with patients performing ECGs and looking ahead at what is to come. In these next few months ahead there are several things I am looking forward to learning but with excitement also come nerves.
The first big stepping stone I am excited and nervous to learn about is phlebotomy. Here in Nova Scotia, registered cardio techs do not start IVs or take blood because there are no private clinics in NS. However, in other parts of Canada, some cardio techs are required to perform this task which is why Stenberg is offering to teach us. I am very grateful that I am given the opportunity to learn phlebotomy because things change in life and I may not always live or want to work in Nova Scotia. This course is very different from what we have been learning and is a very practical skill to learn which is why we will be practicing it in our next lab block in January. I am curious how difficult or easy this will be to transfer the theory to the practice in lab.
The excitement that comes along with my next lab block is not just for phlebotomy, but also to see my online classmates in person again and to start stress testing. Up to this point we have performed and interpreted resting ECGs but we are now entering stress test studies and holter monitoring. This past week I got to have an observation day in the stress lab to see what it was all about to get insight on what we will be learning. There are many new patient concerns with performing a stress test such as knowing patient medications, allergies, blood pressure monitoring, physical ability, and life threatening arrhythmias that are extremely important to know in immense detail for a stress testing that may not be as much of a concern for resting ECGs. Your patient will be walking on a treadmill that gets faster and higher every 3 minutes so it is very important for the safety of our patients that we are monitoring all of these things constantly. I’m sure it will be fun and tiring practicing stress testing on one another in lab.
Lastly, and what I am most excited for is my 3 month practicum. After March, all of our online theory will be complete aside from a one week review course at the end of our program, and we will be moving directly into our three month practice. Right now, I have been looking forward to my single integrated practice experience days which only last at most 3 days. I have so much fun doing the work and I am getting lots of experience in hospital with patients since we cannot always mimic what working in hospitals are actually like in lab with one another. Each day I spend at the hospital I take in so much new information from registered cardio techs that you can only really learn by practicing and gaining experience each day. I can’t wait to see how much I will learn over my three month practicum and will definitely give you an update when the time comes.
Check out a video of our cardio tech students in action.
![An ECG demonstrates the extensive antero-septal-lateral myocardial infarction [heart attack] that Taryn witnessed.](https://stenbergcollege.com/wp-content/smush-webp/2022/12/ecg-1024x530.jpg.webp)
