Nathaniel Goleno

CC PCI Journal

30 October 2023

For clinical this week I was in the cath lab for the day, and I got to see a few procedures be done

and I learned a lot about what goes on there. When I got there the first procedure was at 0800

and I got to watch the nurses and X-Ray technicians set up the lab. They got everything ready for

when the doctor got there, they set up the patient and explained what was going on and what to

expect. During the procedure I sat in the observation room looking in and talked to the

documentation nurse who was explaining everything that went on. They started with the dye to

see where the blockage was and determine if they were going to intervene or not. They decided

that they should use a ballon to inflate the artery in the heart. They ended up inflating the ballon

eight times, but they eventually decided to stop due to the fact that there was another procedure

in that lab starting soon. The nurse I awas sitting with throughout the time was showing me

everything that she was documenting. She was documenting the meds given, everything that they

found out in the heart, everything even down to the time the doctor scrubbed in and out. I got to

see two other procedures that day as well. They were simple and did not take as long as the first

one. They all went through the radial artery and used dye to see blood flow. During one of them

the doctor filled the ventricle with dye to get a rough ejection fraction which I had not seen done

before. I learned a lot and the staff were super helpful and did a great job explaining everything

and teaching me the basics of the cath lab. I really enjoyed my day there and I would go back

again and encourage anyone interested in cardiac to give it a try.