Program Description

Electrocardiographic technicians, sometimes called EKG technicians, enjoy working with people and things, literally wrapping the two together with a special electronic ribbon called electrodes. An EKG measures the electrical impulses as they travel through the heart and records a reading on a special type of graph paper. An EKG technician aids the physician or other medical clinician in the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease, disease of the coronary arteries, heart attack and a wide array of other heart related conditions. Sometimes the EKG technician is referred to as an electrocardiograph technician. They work as part of a close-knit team including cardiovascular technologists who assist physicians in diagnosing and treating cardiac (heart) and peripheral vascular (blood vessel) ailments. These technologists require more training because of the different job tasks they are required to do. Cardiovascular technologists may specialize in several areas of practice, including assisting physicians with cardiac catheterization procedures in which a small tube, or catheter, is inserted through a patient's blood vessel from a spot on the patient's leg into the heart which assists physicians in diagnosing and treating heart ailments.

The work tasks of EKG technicians are less invasive, less complex and usually require placing special monitors on different parts of a patient's body. EKG technicians play an important role in helping medical doctors do their job by providing them with a special EKG printout that is interpreted by the physicians. The brain produces electro-chemical impulses, and the heart also produces these electrical impulses with much more of a "charge." This charge can be measured with the help of the electrodes and will help physicians treat their patients. To take a basic EKG, which traces electrical impulses transmitted by the heart, technicians attach electrodes to the patient's chest, arms, and legs, and then manipulate switches on an EKG machine to obtain a reading. This test is done before most kinds of surgery or as part of a routine physical examination, especially for persons who have reached middle age or who have a history of cardiovascular problems. Some technicians schedule appointments, type doctors' interpretations, maintain patient files, and care for equipment. But for the most part, these workers spend time with individual patients as they "wire them up" and obtain these important readings.