Cardiac Perfusionist

Job Description

• Performs duties outside the sterile field as patient assessment, coordinates and implements perfusion procedures and ensures the patient’s safety and comfort. Is legally responsible for any perfusion related problems that arise in the Operating Rooms.
• Manages patients in the Intensive Care Unit with Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump (IABP), adheres to approved policies .
• The procedures covered include CABG, valve, aortic aneurysm, heart and lung transplantation, ventricular assist devices, and neonatal & pediatric congenital defect surgeries.

Job Responsibilities:

• Attends the unit on time whenever on duty, including weekends and when on call.
• Do the routine checking for the cardiopulmonary bypass machine and the related equipment.
• Maintain weekly audit of stock of Perfusion consumables & disposables.
• Reviews physicians’ preference cards, updates and develops new ones as needed.
• consults with surgeon and physician to obtain patient information needed to set up the heart-lung machine with the associated equipment. Assembles, calibrates, tests and operates the heart/lung machine during surgery or respiratory failure.
• Sets-up and operates all available perfusion device.
• Participates in selecting and evaluating perfusion equipment.
• Regulate blood circulation and composition, to administer drugs and anesthetics agents and to control the body temperature during surgery or respiratory failure.
• Monitor the heart-lung machine operation and adjust to maintain the normal body functions.
• Orders and prepares necessary solutions and medications.
• Manages patient parameters within the accepted safe ranges of established clinical practice.
• Take appropriate corrective action when abnormal situations arise and keep both the surgeon and the Anesthesiologist fully informed.
• Terminates bypass as requested by the surgeon/or anesthesiologist.
• Ensures patient stability and safe transfer to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
• Takes appropriate precautions to minimize risks of infection of patients.
• Performs patient charting.

Participates in:

• Inducing hypothermia and hemodilution of various degrees.
• Ventricular assists: Right Ventricular Assist Devices (RVAD), Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVAD), and Intra-Aortic Balloon Pumps (IABP).
• Vascular bypass during liver transplantation.
• Isolated chemotherapeutic limb perfusion; Long term pulmonary support.
• Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO).

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree or Equivalent
• Diploma in Perfusion Technology
• DHA Eligibility Letter / DHA License is a MUST

Education & Experience:

• Minimum of two (2) years of work experience as a Cardiac Perfusionist.
• Must have performed one hundred (100) independent clinical perfusion procedures