I saw a FB post recently about nurses starting central lines in SC. Was wondering what everyone’s thoughts were with perfusion increasing its scope of practice to A lines and central lines to broaden our responsibilities and hopefully the size of the profession.

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my absolute pleasure to report that my first blood gas/ACT on bypass was a pH of 7.400 and 480 seconds exactly.

May your drainage be great and your surgeons in a good mood today, it’s going to be a good week.

Just out of curiosity, what are some creative things you’ve used empty plastic pump packs, tubing trimmings, syringe casings, etc. to do things for at home? For example I’ve heard someone using big clear medtronic pump packs to use as a mini “greenhouse” for gardening. Makes me wonder what other little tricks you can do with stuff we throw away every day to make them useful!

Hello everyone! I came across a job posting from PDC/Altamar, and I wanted to see if anyone had any experience with this role specifically. Other travel company recommendations are welcome as well.

I’ll put the link below, thank you in advance!

https://perfusion.com/job/traveling-perfusionist-full-time-in-us/

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

Hi all, I’m in my first clinical rotation right now and have been casually looking at jobs just to see what’s out there. I’ve actually found a few I’d really like to apply for, but I have no idea if it’s way too early.

When did you guys start applying for perfusion jobs? I’m worried I’ll get automatically rejected since I still have most of my rotations/cases left, but I also don’t want to wait too long and miss openings I’m interested in.

Also, what did your resume look like when you were still in clinicals? Did you just put the cases/experience you had so far, or include anticipated cases and future rotations too?

Just trying to figure out how people go about this. Any advice is appreciated!

Pharmacy asked me if a pre-made heparinazed bag of 0.45% sale can be used as cell saver irrigation. Would this work? Or would going from isotonic blood, to slightly hypotonic collection/reservoir, bag to isotonic wash cause hemolysis?

Does the AABB have irrigation recommendations available online?

Edit: I didn't intend for the conversation here to get spicy. I am working through my institution to get the 2023 AABB guidelines from JAMA.

Hi all, I’m a current second year student and starting to look at openings. Was curious if anybody is familiar with Northwestern Medicine in Chicago? How’s the team? What pump do you guys use? Pay? Call? Etc.

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

Saw these two postings from CCS and I honestly had to double-check I wasn't misreading them.

Director of Perfusion, Martinsburg, WV: $80,000 - $120,000/year
Perfusionist, Miami, FL: $95,000 - $150,000/year

A Director of Perfusion, so clinical, admin, and call responsibility for an entire department, with a ceiling of $120K? And the staff perfusionist role in Miami tops out at $150K? Both are listed as full-time.

I'd love to know if the pay reflects reality or if it’s smoke and mirrors.

Their other jobs don't list any pay scales so hard to tell.

Curious whether I'm out of touch or whether these numbers really are as low as they look. What are y’all seeing/thinking?

Edit: discussing COL of the WV job and the Median Home Sale Price: $294,117 vs National: ~$400k so it's lower but not crazy cheap

Hi colleagues, I’m preparing for the European perfusion exam. Is there anyone who can help me out regarding the best study resources, or perhaps recall some of the questions? The internet is full of various quizzes—is it okay to use specific websites for practice?

Just wanted hear what you all are using for board prep. Which online prep courses are worth it and which are a waste from your experience?

Hi!!! I am currently a student at The Catholic U of America, I currently am a nursing major, and while I love what I am learning I’m am not sure the career fits my personality. I’ve always been interested in the cardiac unit and perfusion felt like a the perfect blend of all the topics I enjoyed with healthcare. I was just wondering if any Perfusion in DC would let me shadow them or atleast let me ask them a few questions about the profession!! Thank you !!

hi everyone. i am a first year perfusion student and am looking to purchase the blue book from perfusion.com. it says members get a $30 discount. i signed up for the membership but i dont see a discount when i go to checkout. does anyone know how to apply the discount?

website: https://www.informed.fyi/salaries/perfusionist

A few years ago, I did a survey across various forums and reddit asking whether people would be interested in a healthcare-focused salary website. The overwhelming response was yes.

After two years of working on it alongside a full-time job (and getting married somewhere in the middle!), I'm excited to finally share it. The project started as a way to improve salary transparency for my wife, who's a pharmacist. As I worked on it, I realized that the lack of salary transparency extends far beyond pharmacy and affects many healthcare professions.

It's definitely still a work in progress, and I'd genuinely appreciate any feedback or suggestions for improvement. If you'd like to contribute, salary submissions are completely anonymous, your personally identifying information such as your name and email are never displayed.

Also, as a side note, the median salary may seem low since the current data is coming from BLS which may not include compensations such as bonuses and other forms of pay. As more submissions come in, we will be using the submitted values as the source of truth.

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

Anything cool besides Virmedex? Anything useful for studying?

Is anyone having an issue getting Medtronic malleable venous cannulas? Are there any alternatives that are not on back order?

Thanks

We have a new locum heart surgeon. Asked him as much as possible about requirements . Pleg 1000mL ante grade, 1000 retrograde. Remind every 30 mins. Continuous for proximal. 10 mins after first dose he told us to run retro. Asked him how much he wanted. I’ll tell you when to stop. We ran continuously for the rest of the case -90 mins. Eventually went down to 14-1. Has anyone done this before?

My facility is making me take sick leave to do my board exams. I understand that I am a salary employee, but to have to use my own time for something that my hospital system specifically needs me to pass to obtain certification doesn’t seem right.

Has anyone faced this issue before?