Electrophysiology lab nurses bring the mental mojo – the cerebral power of problem solving to find out why the heart is out of sync and how to fix it. Trying to coax the clues of the arrhythmia out of the heart. Mapping, recording, running the stim…these are all relatively new roles in healthcare pushing the frontier of imaging and medical therapies. The technology is cutting edge, the methods can be experimental…electrophysiology is for the mentally brave and curious, to put it lightly. And staffing companies that dabble in the cardiac labs need to know too… it’s not for the faint of heart.
Unlike other staffing agencies, at Phoenix we tell you the bill rate of your assignment. On top of that, we don't profit on your extra hard work (OT, CBOT, DT, On Call Hours) - we only cover our costs of Worker's Comp and taxes.
We’re down the rabbit hole too. Junctional escapes, the Purkinjes…and of course…the why? Why does the heart electrical system send signals the way it does? Why does a particular heart’s electrical signal seemingly take an off ramp and go into an AVNRT loop? The mysteries of the EP lab run deep and patient care is always evolving.
The details matter more than travel floor nursing or allied health. Across medical centers and ep labs, nobody can agree – how to train, or how to educate. We’re not talking average vanilla charting systems, we find the RCES tech that can build your custom Carto map and run the Bloom. The EP nurse that is not just an ACLS in the room for compliance but provides a thoughtful opinion on cardiovascular patient care with an astute QT interval observation.
We’re calling on you because we know that you are uniquely qualified and we know the value of your skill set and the best place to practice, learn and grow. It’s just that simple.
There are plenty of healthcare staffing companies that recruit electrophysiology professionals (both nursing and allied) that we believe are doing a disservice to you and the EP community. Each specialist has a unique set of skills that came from your experience in different labs combined with how you were taught and learned. The combination of those experiences is as unique as a fingerprint.
Finding the right laboratory fit is difficult and the prep work for a job search can be overwhelming, which is why we can help. The right cardiovascular clinical experience, the appetite for learning, the personalities of the EPs, knowing to ask for the preference cards…these details only come with our experience.
The rewards are impossible to describe – a successful placement can save countless lives, where the wrong fit can force a cardiac rhythm center to indefinitely reschedule. In EP staffing, more than any other unit, the travel agency plays a critical part in the success of the team by ensuring skills match the heart center needs.
At Phoenix, we have over 50 years dedicated to the EP lab. We have designed RCES prep courses and work with leading heart rhythm centers that are pushing the bounds of therapies. As with all things Electrophysiology, our pursuit of excellence and knowledge never ends. Even the most advanced medical research is still uncovering new frontiers every day. We’re doing our part by matching the best EP lab talent with the best medical opportunities.
The types of medical equipment, the mapping system, the recording system, the stimulator – that info is not posted in your typical job description but is absolutely critical to a successful placement. Electrophysiology is difficult enough when all the medical equipment is familiar and working properly and impossible if you feel like one of the visitors on assignment. If you’re asked to troubleshoot, let’s at least have it be on equipment you know. Set yourself up for success!
Yes, Los Angeles has the perfect job and we’ll help you get it. But we want to do more – it’s about working together to make life easier, which makes healthcare better. Once you leave the hospital, you are expected to manage your credential expirations. We believe we offer best in class employee benefits:
Too often, we speak with managers or directors that are hesitant to utilize travel staffing due to a bad experience in the past. And when people work with different companies, we hear this all too often – “Why is Rookie Ryan making the same as Pro Patty when Patty has 20 more years of experience?” Our policy does not allow this to happen. The more relevant experience you have, the more you get paid.
Big picture, an EP specialist is part of a cardiovascular medical team that diagnoses and repairs heart rhythm problems of the patient. The heart of the patient is beating out of the normal rhythm and is leading to reduced oxygenated blood circulation. If a cardiac rhythm is too slow (Bradycardia) or too fast (Tachycardia), the doctor and the patient care team may insert cardiac devices to guide the heart to a proper rhythm, such as implantable cardioverter defibrillators.
Some medical facilities will have dedicated heart rhythm centers for diagnosing irregular heart electrical signals of the patient. An elite cardiac clinic will offer a suite of services to engage every aspect of cardiac care. During the procedure, a doctor will attempt to intentionally induce the arrhythmia to study the underlying cause. Once identified, the doctor will attempt a cardiac ablation – burning (radio-frequency ablation) or freezing (cryoablation) a small portion of the cardiac tissue from where the doctor believes the issue is originating.
Electrophysiology does not usually require emergency “on call” services, such as a cardiac STEMI. The arrhythmia of the patient is a problem that needs to be fixed, but not necessarily a “each day could be the last” timeframe because the patient may not have the arrhythmia at all times. That said, there certainly are some atrial arrhythmias (atrial flutter, atrial fibrillation) that can cause immediate loss of life.
Travel nurse pay, for example, would include compensation buckets for the following:
Additionally, some extra expenses to include in your comparison:
As a staff nurse, your lab nurse cardiac pay is primarily comprised of:
Travel jobs are able to bestow tax benefits as some of the funds are used to cover secondary living expenses used in the course of work, however it makes rates hard to compare. The best way to compare a salary job to a lab tech travel job is converting the salary to an hourly rate and “grossing up” the stipend to compare all-taxable hourly rates apples to apples.
Travel jobs usually refer to compensation as the “Gross Weekly”. This is the amount that is all of your working hours multiplied by all of the wage rates, but does not include any additions for on call, OT, or CBOT because these are all “unscheduled” hours and you haven’t worked yet so the “Gross Weekly” estimate is just the scheduled hours (just regular hours).
When compared to a hospital job paycheck, the actual amount that gets deposited into your bank account is considerably higher due to the tax advantages of the stipend.
Electrophysiology is different. Job boards do not even come close to providing all the information needed to evaluate a position. It’s impossible – an elite cardiac institute or heart rhythm center cannot distill the job details down to a webpage. To further complicate your search, some agencies will combine vascular interventional radiology or Cardiac Cath and EP jobs because they do not investigate enough to know if it’s a dedicated unit assignment or if it will include taking emergency cardiac cath lab call.
We’ll hustle till the cows come home, but we want to know exactly what you can do and exactly how you want to grow and learn. That’s the formula for success.
The monthly lab digest case spotlight articles provided by HMTP Global are very informative. Read some of the more recent articles or search for some of the big names to see how they do it. Sign up for a free service to see the right content.
An EP Lab senior advisor is assigned to you when you complete your profile. Different from your recruiter, these are members of our management team (including our CEO) that have extensive clinical experience (for a non-clinician if you will!) combined with market intelligence. These convos are the best parts of our day and are very informative for both sides.
Take a few remote interviews and hone the skills. See how different cardiac programs run their travel staffing programs. Each manager will ask different questions, so any additional practice makes perfect!