Having been a nurse for more than 20 years —much of that time in cardiac specialties— Bethany Leftwich knows the importance of keeping one’s heart in the game. Where there’s heart, there’s hope. And hope gives her the passion to forge ahead.
As a charge nurse in Northside Hospital’s catheterization laboratory recovery room, Leftwich says the fact many cardiac issues can be remedied brings an air of optimism to her professional world.
“The heart is something we can normally do something about to make people better,” she said. “It’s miraculous at times. …You have people who come in, and they’re almost clinically dead. We work on them, they go to ICU for a couple of days, and then they walk out. …You really feel like you can make a difference.”
Since graduating from the University of Virginia in 1993, Leftwich has found herself making a difference in nursing. After working in a trauma ICU in Washington, D.C., she relocated to Atlanta in 1995 as a nurse in the cardiovascular ICU at St. Joseph’s Hospital. For the next 16 years, she bounced between the cardiovascular ICU and the cath lab. In 2011, she moved to Northside’s cath lab, eventually making her way to cath lab recovery.
“I’ve done all parts and pieces of it,” she said, “whatever fit my family lifestyle at the time. But I’ve always stayed in cardiac.”
Today, working in the cath lab has her arriving early each morning, preparing for the first patients of the day. Leftwich and her team spend the day prepping patients, going over paperwork and health histories, administering IVs and other pre-procedure preparation. When the patients come out of the procedure, they recover them and prepare them to return home or become admitted into the hospital.
“It’s a lot of patient education,” Leftwich explained, “talking to families, helping them to understand what’s going to happen, what happened (during the procedure), and telling patients how they need to take care of themselves when they go home.”
While seeing a positive outcome or dramatic recovery can be rewarding, Leftwich says the social aspect can be equally satisfying.
“Sometimes it’s just a matter of knowing a patient came in terrified, and you could make them comfortable,” she said. “When they leave, they feel much better and more calm, and feel like they were taken care of and that they’re going to be OK. They walk away with a new lease on life.”
In Northside’s cath lab recovery, a team of about seven RNs work rotating schedules Monday through Friday. Leftwich describes her team as “sort of like the air traffic control of the cath lab.” They often work as the intermediary between those working in the cath lab operating room suite and other departments, as well as with the patients’ families.
Just as a heart requires its valves to work together, a successful cath lab needs to unite as a team. While other nursing units might offer autonomy, it’s quite the opposite in the cath lab. It’s essential to the tight knit, positive vibe found within the cath lab at Northside, Leftwich says, where it’s “all hands on deck, all of the time.”
“We’re truly like a little family,” Leftwich said. “We’ve all worked together long enough that we almost don’t even have to say what we need. People just know and can sense what needs to be done and it gets done, because we all have each other’s back. It’s like a good basketball team.”
JoAnn Miller, a nurse for more than 20 years and Leftwich’s co-worker, agrees. Trusting those around you, Miller says, remains important. The same goes for relying on each other’s support and playing off of one another’s strengths.
“A coworker may have a question, and someone else quickly hops on the computer to find an answer,” Miller said. “I’m the IV girl. Whenever someone can’t get an IV, they come to me.”
Not only does the cath lab recovery team need to rally together, it must be on point with the surgical side of the lab. Shannon Kanable-Smithson, who works in the cath lab procedure room, recognizes the importance of Leftwich and her recovery team.
“Bethany and her crew start everything,” Kanable-Simthson said, “so I can come out as a nurse, and I can trust them. It’s the little things they do that takes the pressures off my shoulders. I know their labs and paperwork are in order. …They have prepped the patient, done pre-education and have done everything to get that patient right to the threshold of the cath lab. So all I have to do is bring the patient in, establish my relationship and do my job. When the procedure is over, they pick right up after the wheels roll out.”
Stepping into the cath lab environment, however, isn’t something they recommend doing overnight. Experience is essential.
“You can’t be a brand new nurse out of school to do this,” Leftwich said. “You need to have had some experience in a more difficult cardiac floor setting, either in ICU or cath lab, to come here.”
In addition to experience, Leftwich says the perfect cath lab nurse needs to be able to deftly jump from an elective case to an emergency situation and back again without flinching. She likens the cath lab to a frontline job one moment and a maintenance gig the next. The type of energy needed to handle stress and come out smiling attracts a certain type of person.
“We have more adrenaline junkie personalities in the cath lab as a whole,” Leftwich said. “You just have to be able to drop what you’re doing and be there.”
Being in the cath lab and staying there not only requires stamina, but the desire to learn more. The good and bad thing about cardiology, Leftwich says, is its constant evolution. Cath lab nurses need to stay on top of those changes.
According to Miller, Leftwich, who she refers to as “probably in the top five of the smartest nurses I’ve ever worked with,” is the perfect example. Leftwich studies her field through continuing education —she has a critical care certification— and stays abreast on changes in the field by reading medical news reports.
Ultimately, for Leftwich, it all comes back to hope; the hope of patients getting better and the hope of making a difference alongside likeminded individuals.
“When you find the right team, there’s nothing better than that,” Leftwich said. “It inspires you to go fight the good fight together. I don’t want to leave my coworkers in the lurch. I’m going to power through today. And that can be inspiring.”
