You will probably first meet your EKG technician at a stress test or if you are sent in for investigations for potential heart issues. They are a junior member of the medical team and their role involves doing some tests and preparing some data for your cardiologist or other specialist.
The technician must take or update your complete medical history first before doing anything. If you are doing a stress test, he will take some baseline readings for reference. Your resting blood pressure when compared to the blood pressure you register after exercise will give some indications on the state of your general health. A junior EKG technician will take just readings. If you are going to have stress tests or other procedures you will see a more senior technician. Neither will discuss the results of the test with you. That would mean giving you medical opinions and they are not qualified for that.
Certain cardiac conditions can be picked up via the electrocardiogram tests. The results of your test will be referred back to the cardiologist who will discuss them with you. As we said, an EKG technician isn’t qualified to give you medical advice so there is no point in asking them any questions or inferring anything from their silence.
Where do electrocardiogram technicians work? They generally work in medical facilities, private cardiology units and in the ER of big hospitals. Some will work in the armed forces so there is a chance of travel if that appealed. Like all medical staff, they work long hours and weekends and special occasions like Christmas and Thanksgiving don’t count as automatic days off.
What attributes do you need to be a good EKG technician? An ability to stay calm and focused as well as communicate effectively with members of the general public will help in this role. They need to be able to put people at ease as they are likely to be stressed. These tests usually show something is wrong but it can be minor. The patient gets nervous all the same and this can affect the results of the tests. They must remain impassive and never show a patient that you are worried about the results even if they show that he or she is in danger of a massive heart attack. Once the tests have been completed and the patient returned to the care of the specialist team, the role of the EKG technician is complete.
EKG Technician 