EKG Technician

The electrocardiogram, or EKG, is a crucial piece of equipment used in hospitals and other facilities by certified technicians. The objective of the EKG Technician course is to provide graduates with the skills and knowledge that will enable them to qualify as an ECG/EKG Technician or Telemetry Technician in a medical facility, physician’s office, clinic, or rehabilitation center. Students are prepared to take national certification exams upon completion of this extremely comprehensive program.

What is an EKG technician?

An EKG is a medical test that records the heart’s electrical impulses. To perform this task, a technician fastens electrodes to a patient to be read by the EKG machine. The information or reading that is obtained and printed out is given to the physician to interpret.

The EKG Technician is responsible for performing diagnostic tests to assess the heart rhythm and rate in patients. EKG’s are also performed before and after operations, during physicals, examinations of patients over 40, for patients with a history of heart disease, when patients are experiencing chest pains, and when the doctor deems it necessary.

A well-trained EKG technician is an integral part of the management of patients with heart disease. The EKG Technician may also clean equipment, maintain and process data reports. Technicians who have additional training may also perform Holter monitoring or treadmill stress tests. The Holter monitor is a machine that is used to continuously monitor and record the electrical activity of a patient’s heart for a 24-hour period. The majority of EKG technicians are employed by hospitals.

What will the course include?

The ECG/EKG Technician course covers the role of an EKG in the healthcare industry, and the responsibilities associated with this specific career. A student in our program will graduate with the skills and the knowledge needed to be able to understand and fill a specialized role in a healthcare setting.

The course will first discuss what an EKG is and what’s it’s used for in a clinical setting, before developing an understanding of the heart, its function, and how an EKG machine is used in a diagnostic capacity, as well as:

• Key terminology relating to the heart and its basic anatomy and physiology

• An understanding of how an EKG uses electrical conduction to get readings on the function of the heart—concepts of cardiac polarization, depolarization, and repolarization.

Once students have developed a basic understanding of how an EKG works, they are trained to perform the tests efficiently. This is one of the most important roles of an EKG technician, because if readings are taken from an incorrect test, they won’t be reliable for diagnostic purposes.

This includes learning the basic function and properties of the equipment and how to correctly carry out a 12-lead EKG test on a patient, including placement of the leads and troubleshooting the equipment to ensure accurate results. By the end of the course, students will not only be able to consistently take accurate EKG readings, but also interpret typical EKG tracings and summarize results.

This includes interpreting cardiac rhythms: normal sinus rhythm, ventricular rhythm, sinus bradycardia, sinus tachycardia, biochemical arrhythmias, pacemaker arrhythmias, myocardial infarction. Students will also need to know how to summarize diagnostic tests, and how the resulting conditions can be treated with different cardiac medications.

The course includes training with the Holter machine, which monitors the heart on an ongoing basis for patients. Students will learn how to monitor vital signs and recognize signs of stress as well as interpret risk. In a professional setting, EKG Technicians may also be asked to handle other responsibilities, such as:

• Proper cleaning and storage of equipment

• Helping prepare patients for tests and accounting for safety

• Staying compliant with healthcare and workplace regulations (HIPAA, etc.)

By the end of the course, students will be prepared to take the NHA/NCCT certification exams, which are needed to enter the field as a professional.