How to become a Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician 2024

Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician Conduct tests on pulmonary or cardiovascular systems of patients for diagnostic, therapeutic, or research purposes. May conduct or assist in electrocardiograms, cardiac catheterizations, pulmonary functions, lung capacity, and similar tests.

Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician is Also Know as

In different settings, Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician is titled as

Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Technologist
Cardiac Catheterization Technician
Cardiac Technician
Cardio Tech (Cardiovascular Technician)
Cardiology Technician
Cardiopulmonary Technician
Cardiovascular Technologist (CVT)
Electrocardiogram Technician (EKG Tech)
Registered Cardiovascular Invasive Specialist (RCIS)

Education and Training of Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician

Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician is categorized in Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician

Previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is required for these occupations. For example, an electrician must have completed three or four years of apprenticeship or several years of vocational training, and often must have passed a licensing exam, in order to perform the job.

Education Required for Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician

Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.

Degrees Related to Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician

Training Required for Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician

Employees in these occupations usually need one or two years of training involving both on-the-job experience and informal training with experienced workers. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician in different industries are

What Do Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician do?

Monitor patients' blood pressure and heart rate using electrocardiogram (EKG) equipment during diagnostic or therapeutic procedures to notify the physician if something appears wrong.
Monitor patients' comfort and safety during tests, alerting physicians to abnormalities or changes in patient responses.
Explain testing procedures to patients to obtain cooperation and reduce anxiety.
Observe gauges, recorder, and video screens of data analysis system during imaging of cardiovascular system.
Conduct electrocardiogram (EKG), phonocardiogram, echocardiogram, stress testing, or other cardiovascular tests to record patients' cardiac activity, using specialized electronic test equipment, recording devices, or laboratory instruments.
Prepare and position patients for testing.
Obtain and record patient identification, medical history, or test results.
Attach electrodes to the patients' chests, arms, and legs, connect electrodes to leads from the electrocardiogram (EKG) machine, and operate the EKG machine to obtain a reading.
Adjust equipment and controls according to physicians' orders or established protocol.
Check, test, and maintain cardiology equipment, making minor repairs when necessary, to ensure proper operation.
Supervise or train other cardiology technologists or students.
Operate diagnostic imaging equipment to produce contrast enhanced radiographs of heart and cardiovascular system.
Inject contrast medium into patients' blood vessels.
Observe ultrasound display screen and listen to signals to record vascular information, such as blood pressure, limb volume changes, oxygen saturation, or cerebral circulation.
Assess cardiac physiology and calculate valve areas from blood flow velocity measurements.
Compare measurements of heart wall thickness and chamber sizes to standard norms to identify abnormalities.
Activate fluoroscope and camera to produce images used to guide catheter through cardiovascular system.
Enter factors, such as amount and quality of radiation beam, and filming sequence, into computer.
Conduct tests of pulmonary system, using spirometer or other respiratory testing equipment.
Perform general administrative tasks, such as scheduling appointments or ordering supplies or equipment.
Maintain a proper sterile field during surgical procedures.
Assist physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiac or peripheral vascular treatments, such as implanting pacemakers or assisting with balloon angioplasties to treat blood vessel blockages.
Transcribe, type, and distribute reports of diagnostic procedures for interpretation by physician.
Set up 24-hour Holter and event monitors, scan and interpret tapes, and report results to physicians.
Assist surgeons with vascular procedures, such as preparing balloons and stents.

Qualities of Good Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician

Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.

Tools Used by Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician

3, 4, and 5 stopcock manifolds
Activated clotting time ACT lab equipment
Angiojets
Arterial line stop-cocks
Automated external defibrillators AED
Automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator AICD implants
Balloon catheters
Bird's nest inferior vena caval filters
Blood collection syringes
Blood gas analyzers
Brachial artery needles
Brockenbrough needles
C-clamps
Cardio-page writers
Cardiovascular catheter sheaths
Caval filters
Central venous catheters
Chemical sterilizers
Coagulation testing equipment
Computerized lung analyzers
Contrast power injectors
Coronary stents
Defense digital imaging network-picture archiving and communications systems DIN-PACS
Defibrillators
Desktop computers
Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine DICOM system equipment
Distal embolic protection devices
Dual chamber pacemakers
Electrocardiography EKG electrodes
Electrocardiography EKG tape reading scanners
Electrocardiography EKG units
Electronic blood pressure units
Electronic stethoscopes
Evacuated blood collection tubes
Film processing equipment
Fluoroscopes
Glucometers
Grollmann catheters
Guidewires
Heart catheters
Heart probes
Hemodynamic monitors
Holter monitors
Image capturing and transmission systems
Image storage systems
Indeflators
Intra-aortic balloon pumps IABP
Intravenous IV locks
Intravenous IV syringes
Intravenous IV tubing
Laboratory microscopes
Laser printers
Lasers
Lead aprons
Lead collars
Light and sound machines
Light meters
Mechanical stethoscopes
Mechanical thrombolytic devices
Medical picture archiving computer systems PACS
Medrad injectors
Mercury sphygmomanometers
Microscopes
Miller catheters
Myocardial biopsy forceps
NIH catheters
Nitric oxide administration equipment
Notebook computers
Over-the-needle intravenous IV catheters
Oximeters
Oxygen therapy systems
Pacemaker analyzers
Pacemakers
Pacing generators
Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty PTCA equipment
Personal computers
Physiological monitoring and analysis systems
Plethysmography machines
Portable electrocardiography EKG machines
Pressure injectors
Pressure tubing
Radi pressure wires
Radiofrequency ablation catheters
Rheolytic thrombectomy systems
Rotoblators
Scan converters
Silicone lead end caps
Spirometers
Sterile blood lancets
Surgical trays/tables
Suture devices
Swan Ganz artery catheters
Tablet computers
Therapeutic treadmill exercisers
Thermal printers
Thermodilution cardiac output computers
Tourniquets
Transluminal extraction catheters
Transseptal sheaths
Ultracentrifuges
Vector-cardiographs
Vena caval filters
Venipuncture needles
Ventricular demand pacemakers
Wave wires
X ray machines

Technology Skills required for Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician

Database software
Diagnostic image review software
Digital Imaging Communications in Medicine DICOM-compatible image acquisition and integration software products
Electronic medical record EMR software
Hypertext preprocessor PHP
Information systems integration software
Internet or intranet image distribution software
JavaScript
MEDITECH software
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Office software
Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft Word
Practice management software PMS
Pyxis MedStation software
Smart Digital Holter Monitor
Structured data entry software
Web browser software
Word processing software

US Universities

How to become Cardiovascular Technologists and Technician in 2024