All About My Job: Nursing (RN)

What type of schooling did you have to complete in order to get to your job?

There was, of course, nursing school, which took four years — two of which were for nursing training. I had always wanted to be a pediatric nurse, and only came to the Cleveland Clinic for some job experience. It is now 36 years later!

What made you choose this field?

I was a head nurse in cardiology here, and I would always tease Dr. Lon Castle, who originated CCF’s electrophysiology department, about when he was going to find me a job in EP. This was an ongoing thing that we would joke about, and then one day he happened to be walking by and said “We have a job, do you want it?” I submitted a job posting form, and two weeks later I started in EP. That was 26 years ago. It’s funny, because if someone would have told me that I could do this, I would have told them I had no technical knowledge to do any of this. However, it has been something that I found out that I really do like and am good at, so it has been a good fit. 

What is a typical morning like for you? What time do you get to work? Describe some of your tasks that you do in the mornings. Are mornings busy for you?

Mornings are usually very busy for me. I usually get to work between 6:00 and 6:30 am. The first thing I do is start my computer and go to the remote site to see if anything happened during the night that I need to start the day rolling with. I also take a look at what went on the day before in Paceart, see if there are any issues that I need to look at, and make sure everything got into the electronic medical records. Patients start coming in at about 7:30-7:45 am.

What types of patients do you help treat?

We see everyone from ER patients to device patients who are coming in for their yearly checks or who are coming in because they are experiencing a problem.

Do you generally get breaks and for how long?

Some days we do. I try to catch some lunch when I can, and all of us on staff are pretty good at multitasking — we will sit at our desks and do whatever computer work that needs to be done, including revisiting the remote sites all day.

How many days/hours do you work per week on average? Sometimes it is four days a week, for 11-12 hours, and other times it is five days a week, for 11-12 hours.

What are your afternoons like?

Once our work day starts, it is like a tumbleweed — it just keeps going. The last patients are usually scheduled around 4:30 to 5:00 pm, although it depends on the hospital patients that we have to see — if we have a lot of them coming in the afternoon, we are at the mercy of a large hospital and the transport issues associated with that.

What is your interaction with other staff members?

We work very closely together with all of our EP staff and all of our device nurses. We work as a very good group — it is very collegial.

What are some of your typical duties before, during and after cases?

We are usually on our own, so you are responsible for making sure the patient is checked, everything is accurate, that the billing is done, if there is an appointment needed for a return that the correct paperwork is submitted for that, and also making sure the patient’s next follow-up appointment is scheduled if remote services or transtelephonic monitoring is needed. 

Are you still working on online nursing projects?

Yes, I’m still working with WebMD, and it’s going very well. There are a lot of patient questions out there!

Where or how do you obtain continuing education credits?

We are very lucky — we have a lot of Saturday inservices where maybe half a day of education is offered by a vendor or the Cleveland Clinic that we can attend and get inservice credits for. I also get a lot of mine through the Heart Rhythm Society.

What do you like best about your position?

The best aspect of my job is being able to take care of people and make them feel better when I can. I think that that is the most important thing you can do, because when somebody calls you and says “You know what, I feel better after being seen,” it makes your day.

What are your plans for the future?

Just to keep plugging away. When you enjoy your job, it is not much of an effort to come to work. I really enjoy what I do. When I stop enjoying what I do, then I’m going to worry.