Roles and Responsibilities of a Cardiac Rehabilitation Nurse

Cardiac rehabilitation nurses play a pivotal role in offering long-term assistance and care to patients recovering from cardiovascular issues. These nursing professionals are responsible to assist, guide and educate patients through their journey to a happier and healthier heart.

Job Description of a Cardiac Rehabilitation Nurse

The prime responsibilities of a cardiac rehabilitation nurse are to assist cardiologists in curing patients recovering from, suffering from, or at risk of developing cardiovascular ailments. The important duties of such nurses are:

· Performing and assessing stress tests

· Recording as well as monitoring the basic vitals like heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, blood oxygen levels, and heart rhythm

· Interpreting and diagnosing the ECG tests

· Administering medications

· Offering help and support during cardiovascular surgical processes

· Post-surgical care

In addition to this, a cardiac rehabilitation nurse suggests important lifestyle changes to patients like quitting smoking, meal planning, developing an exercise regimen, taking steps to reduce the stress levels. On a primary note, cardiac rehabilitation nurses assist patients to make positive lifestyle changes.

Where Do Cardiac Rehabilitation Nurses Work?

According to the nursing agency in Leicester, the cardiac rehabilitation nurses work in community health centres, hospitals, cardiology clinics, and sometimes in gyms and fitness centres.

What are the Essential Attributes or Skills of a Cardiac Rehabilitation Nurse?

Just like other nursing professions, even cardiac rehabilitation nurses must possess excellent communication skills and a passion to assist others for healthy living. But most importantly, a cardiac rehabilitation nurse must have the skills to guide, advise, educate, and support patients in developing a healthy lifestyle. Moreover, they must have the skill to provide them immediate care and treatment.

Often times, cardiac patients may tend to resist some of the lifestyle and treatment recommendations. As a cardiac rehabilitation nurse, you must be willing to explain the benefits of such changes again and again to them. Furthermore, you must make sure that the patients follow these instructions on a strict basis. This is possible if you have good persuasion skills and patience.

Also, the cardiac rehabilitation nurses must have a deep interest in research and must be able to stay abreast of the current breakthroughs and trends in the field. This is important to make sure that the patients receive the best possible treatment.

In addition to this, a cardiac rehabilitation nurse must possess excellent problem-solving skills. It is because a patient suffering from cardiac problems can experience an emergency at any time. In this case, the nurse must be able to offer immediate assistance and treatment to such patients.

Training and Education Required for Cardiac Rehabilitation Nurse

In order to work as a cardiac rehabilitation nurse, it is essential for a nurse to possess at least a bachelor’s degree and possess at least two years’ experience as an RN. Just like other nursing specialities, earning a master’s degree or a higher nursing level with a specialization in cardiology will boost your employment potentials to a tremendous extent.

Employers searching for cardiac nurses are usually looking out for registered nurses with the desired qualifications. However, those with a higher nursing level or additional education, especially a master’s degree become a more suitable candidate. Therefore such nurses have a higher chance of getting hired.

Once you have worked as a registered nurse for a minimum duration of two years and have gained at least 2,000 hours of experience in cardiovascular nursing, you can then become a certified nurse in the same field.

Cardiac rehabilitation nurses working in a nursing agency in Leicester believes that their role is to implement changes in a patient’s lifestyle that prolong their lives. If a patient has met with severe cardiac ailments, then a nurse must conduct tests and monitor important signs like respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure, and others at regular intervals.