How to become a Cardiovascular Technician?
Becoming a Cardiovascular technician requires an associate degree and valid certification. Such a degree in cardiovascular technology is obtained via an accredited cardiovascular tech program at a technical school or community college. There are several requirements, starting from your basic education that is necessary to successfully enter the profession of cardiovascular technician. Let us look in to the details of the steps that are necessary to become Cardiovascular technician.
Main duties of Cardiovascular technicians is to assist the doctors in the cardiology medical units or cardiology settings. The Cardiovascular technicians can get specialization in three main fields. They are invasive cardiology technicians, echocardiography technicians and vascular technology technicians. They also need to be highly trained in working on electrocardiographs (EKG), stress tests and other heart related testing procedures like holter monitoring and stress tests. Some have obtained specialization in assisting the surgeons in invasive cardiac operations like catheterization and angioplasty. The training programs can extend for one to four years in complex cardiac care procedures but many Cardiovascular technicians can get the training with hands-on experience on the job itself.
What are the qualifications required for those aspiring to be Cardiovascular technicians? OF course, the basic qualifications for this profession are, aptitude and keen interest in scientific learning and a passion and temperament for patient care. This is very important as you will have to show lot of kindness and compassion with seriously sick and bed ridden people.
The next requirement is that you must have a sound medical background. Though the main emphasis is on the technical side of cardiovascular techs, it helps if the technicians also have medical knowledge. The general knowledge about the anatomy and physiology, internal body systems help the technicians to understand their jobs better.
One needs to be physically fit as the duties demand that the technicians spend most of their time standing or walking, unlike white collared jobs. At times they may have to work for extended hours.
There are many specialty and settings in the cardiovascular technician professions and you have to choose that suits the best for your qualifications and training. First of all you can choose whether you would like in hospital environment or medical clinic or prefer to have private practice. You can choose the proper setting based on your qualification. If you opt for non invasive Cardiovascular specialties such as cardiac ultrasound, you can work in all settings if you have the infrastructure and costly equipments needed. If you are specialized in invasive procedures like catheterization and angioplasty you will have opportunity working in hospitals only.
You need to undergo Cardiovascular technology programs that are from accredited training schools. Accreditation is very important as committees like Joint Review committee on Education in Cardiovascular Technology ans Cardivasculat Credentialing International must have certified about meeting the stringent requirements for the complete academic program. These credentials are important as they are recognized by many hospitals and medical facilities which will offer greater career prospects.
There are other qualifications like having right aptitude for the job and must be disciplined in following the detailed instructions. They must have right communication skills to interact with patients and physicians.