Tips to become a great electrocardiograph technician

The first thing we must value to be a good electrocardiograph technician is to know how to read an EKG. But how to know if it is well done?

Sometimes for lack of knowledge, rush or carelessness, mistakes are made when performing an electrocardiogram. It is our duty, as professionals, to determine those errors, to repeat the EKG if possible, and to clarify any doubt to our co-workers.

Here are a few details you must check to make sure that the electrocardiogram is well done.

Name, Date and Time:

Imagine at your table three electrocardiograms of three different patients without name or identification. How do you know who they are? And if you add clinical, analytical, and a few other papers to it, you should have an incredible memory to remember them.

What if you have two electrocardiograms from the same patient, both different? Or if the patient who has come 4 hours earlier for an arrhythmia has four EKG that have been made since he arrived, some have arrhythmia and others do not, how do you know the order if you do not have the time and date? And if you now know it now, will you remember it in three months?

The first rule at EKG training is that every exam like this must have the patient’s name, date, and time of realization.

12 derivations:

For an electrocardiogram to be well performed, the 12 leads must be registered, since they are essential for the correct analysis of an EKG. It is frequent that a derivation does not register electrical activity due to the bad connection of an electrode. In this case, the electrocardiogram should be repeated.

In other cases, Rhythm or long strip electrocardiograms are performed, which consist of fewer leads. As the name says, they are for assessing the heart rate and should always be done after performing a 12-lead electrocardiogram.

Few Artifacts:

The artifacts in an electrocardiogram are signals external to the heart recorded in the electrocardiogram. The most frequent are the signs of the skeletal muscles or bad contact of some electrode with the skin. Isolated artifacts do not prevent the correct reading of an electrocardiogram, but several of them or an electrocardiogram with many artifacts can induce diagnostic errors. That is why a well-performed electrocardiogram should have the least possible artifacts.

Well placed electrodes:

One of the most frequent errors when performing an electrocardiogram is misplacing the electrodes. Each electrode has a different color, to facilitate differentiation. In our EKG certification programs and courses, we teach you everything you need to identify them and become an electrocardiograph technician

Summarizing:

• Patient’s name, date, and time of completion.
• The 12 leads well registered.
• The minimum possible artifacts.
• Check the correct placement of the electrodes.