Responsibility & Opportunity.

Once we brought our authors together for the October issue, we were happily surprised by how these two themes resounded throughout their work. Our authors this month share the results of their experiences after they took ownership of a problem and, utilizing their own ingenuity, filled a need in the cath lab. In our articles this month, this means managing your patients’ pain, addressing cardiovascular staff shortages with long-term thinking, and rearranging a management position to suit your own needs, while at the same time providing results of value to your facility. Marsha Holton, BS, CCRN, RCIS, FSICP, shares her thoughts on patient pain management. Her article was originally presented at the Cath Lab Digest Annual Symposium on Cardiovascular Care (June 6-8, 2002, Las Vegas). While listening to Marsha speak, I was impressed by the extremely close attention attendees paid to her presentation. She offers an interesting look at how to best approach your patients’ pain, both physically and mentally. Cary Lunsford, RCIS, shares how an educational trip to the Paris EuroPCR resulted from his own devotion to patient care, and Geisinger’s CVT School talks about their 100% RCIS Registry Exam passing rate (talk about pressure!). Plus, HDR Architecture and the Wisconsin Heart Hospital discuss their practical and efficient design for a new heart hospital. This design takes into account how cardiac cath lab flow actually works. Enjoy! Rebecca Yospyn Managing Editor Cath Lab Digest cathlabdigest@aol.com Tel. 248-360-2777

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