New93 role standards, now public
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Role standards

Imaging and diagnostics

Cardiovascular technologist

What a cardiovascular technologist must do safely in the catheterisation laboratory without being told: keep the field sterile, record pressures and rhythm that can be trusted, and say out loud the moment either changes. Drawn from the examination matrix Cardiovascular Credentialing International uses to register invasive specialists.

Practice this assessmentHire for this role
Expectations
10
Safety red lines
4
Sources
2
Version
1

Built from Cardiovascular Credentialing International, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions. Reviewed by clinicians, last on .

01What the role is measured on#

Every verdict is made of the same five dimensions. Each is scored on its own, so a candidate sees where they are strong and where to work.

  • Clinical skillsThe hands-on and judgement work of the role: recognising what matters, acting in the right order, and knowing when something cannot wait.
  • Workflow and toolsGetting the work done in a real setting: the systems, records, equipment and handoffs the role runs on, used correctly and on time.
  • Patient communicationHow the role talks with patients, families and colleagues: listening, explaining plainly, and confirming what was understood.
  • Compliance and safetyThe rules that protect people: privacy, consent, infection control, reporting duties and the safety checks the role is accountable for.
  • Role knowledgeKnowing the job itself: what the role is responsible for, where its scope ends, and who to bring in when it does.

02What a ready hire does#

What a competent cardiovascular technologist does on day one, dimension by dimension.

Clinical skills

  • Sets up, zeroes and levels the pressure system so the numbers can be trusted, recognises a damped, ventricularised or otherwise abnormal waveform as it happens, and says so out loud at once.
  • Places leads so the rhythm and ST segments stay readable through the case, and recognises a rhythm or ST change that matters as it happens.

Workflow and tools

  • Takes an active part in the time-out, confirming identity, procedure, access site, consent and the safety facts that change the case, and stops the case when something does not match.
  • Keeps the procedure log accurate and contemporaneous - times, drugs, doses, pressures, devices, contrast and radiation - so the record shows what actually happened.

Patient communication

  • Explains what is happening on the table in plain words the patient can act on, and checks it has landed, especially when the patient is sedated, anxious or not fluent in the language of the laboratory.
  • Reinforces the care team's post-procedure instructions within scope, and routes medication and diagnosis questions to the clinician.

Compliance and safety

  • Keeps the sterile field sterile, recognises every break in it, and announces and corrects a break at once whatever the time pressure.
  • Keeps the dose to the patient and the team as low as reasonably achievable, and tracks the patient's dose against the laboratory's notification levels.

Role knowledge

  • Recognises an emergency in the catheterisation laboratory as it starts, announces it, and does their part of the response - defibrillator, emergency equipment, pressures, times - without waiting to be asked.
  • Does only what their credential, state rules and facility privileges allow, and hands anything beyond that to the right person.

03Safety red lines#

Any one of these keeps a candidate from Ready Day One, whatever the rest of the score. They are published so nobody meets them for the first time in the assessment.

  • Sees the aortic pressure damp or ventricularise when a coronary catheter engages, or a sudden fall in pressure, and does not call it out to the operator at once - staying quiet, waiting to see, or only noting it in the log.

    Injecting or advancing through a damped, wedged catheter can cause dissection, ischaemia or ventricular fibrillation, and the technologist watching the trace is often the first person who can stop it.

  • Would use or pass to the operator an item they know or suspect is contaminated, or would not announce a break in the sterile field so as not to delay the case.

    A contaminated wire, catheter or implant carries organisms straight into the bloodstream or a device pocket, and the infection that follows can be fatal or cost the patient their device.

  • Would enter a drug, dose, clotting time or pressure that was not given or measured, back-time entries made after the event as if they were made at the time, or change a recorded value to tidy the log.

    Recovery, the next operator and any review act on the log, and a false dose or time can lead to a repeated anticoagulant dose or a missed complication. Falsifying a medical record is misconduct everywhere.

  • In pulseless ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia, does not immediately announce the rhythm and get the defibrillator charged and the shock delivered under the laboratory's protocol, and instead waits - for the injection to finish, for the code team, or to re-check the monitor.

    Every minute without defibrillation in ventricular fibrillation sharply lowers the chance of survival, and in the laboratory a shock can usually be delivered within seconds.

04Outside the role#

Knowing where the role stops is part of the standard. Going past it is not extra credit.

  • Does not perform vascular access, sheath removal, device deployment or any 'perform' task on the RCIS matrix unless their state rules and facility privileges allow it for them.Assists the credentialed operator, and asks the laboratory lead where the line is in that facility.
  • Does not give medication, including sedation or contrast-reaction drugs, unless they hold a licence that permits it and there is an order.Prepares and hands what is asked for, and makes sure the nurse or physician giving it has the dose and time recorded.
  • Does not tell a patient or family what the angiogram or pressures showed.Tells them the physician will explain the findings, and makes sure the physician knows they asked.
  • Does not operate fluoroscopy outside what their state's radiation-control rules permit for their credential.Works under the supervising physician's direction and the facility's radiation safety policy, and hands over the controls when the rules require it.

05How it is assessed#

  • A spoken assessment

    An examiner talks the candidate through realistic cases from this role, and follows up the way a senior colleague would.

  • Five dimensions

    Each answer is read against the expectations above and rated on the same four-level scale.

  • The 70 bar

    Every scorecard shows the score against 70, overall and for each dimension, with the reason for the verdict.

  • Safety first

    Crossing one of the safety red lines holds a pass back, however strong the rest was.

The four levels

  1. Not yet
  2. Developing
  3. Proficient
  4. Exemplary
How a verdict is made

06Sources and review#

Drawn from the certification frameworks and practice standards below, and reviewed by clinicians. Version 1, last reviewed .

Cited as sources. Not an endorsement by the organizations named.

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