Working as a monitor technician in the critical care area isn’t just serious business. It’s a job that requires serious multi-tasking abilities, as well. Just imagine, keeping watch on the vital signs of as many as 16 patients at a time, answering the phones, screening visitors, processing doctors’ orders, assembling charts and tracking paperwork – and that’s just a sampling of routine duties. In the midst of it all, a patient’s status could change – sudden variations in the vital signs warning of a potential crisis.

“It probably takes a good couple of years to get the gist, to get everything down,” says Michael Rebokis, who has worked as a monitor technician for about 10 years.

Patients admitted to critical care are generally too unstable for the hospital’s medical-surgical floors and require closer observation, explains Mike Spector, RN, CCA, Nurse Manager. They’re often connected to ventilators that assist with breathing; some may have renal (kidney) failure, sepsis (widespread infection), cardiac problems and other potentially life-threatening ailments.

Throughout their shifts, the monitor techs are keeping close watch on side-by-side computer screens that display heart rhythms, oxygen saturation levels, blood pressure readings, temperature and other vital signs. “Even though it doesn’t look like you’re doing much while sitting at the monitors, you’re always paying attention,” Rebokis says.

Over the years, he’s had the opportunity to train new monitor techs and orient them to the critical care environment. What’s often difficult to explain, is his acute peripheral vision and the ability to detect fluctuations on-screen while performing several other tasks simultaneously.

“They may just be lines on a monitor, but they’re attached to a live person,” Rebokis says. “It’s a safety factor. Some things could be missed if someone isn’t constantly watching the screens.”

“The best part of the job,” he adds, “is seeing a patient arrive in bad shape, and then, going out in better condition.”

In all, the CCA has a pool of seven monitor techs, Spector says. They come with a high school degree, take a course in interpreting heart rhythms and undergo extensive orientation. They’re also trained in patient care, to help out as needed.

“They serve as the eyes of the nurse when the nurse can’t be in the patient’s room,” Spector says. “They provide support in a bad situation. If you need help, they get it, stat.”

“It’s a very stressful job,” he adds. “You have to have a strong voice. You can’t be weak-kneed, and you have to work well under pressure.”

Frank Belli has been on the job for just about a year. “We have a very broad job description,” he says, which is how he prefers it. Belli says he’s now working on prerequisites to pursue studies to become a registered nurse. While the work can be stressful, he notes, “the more I learn, the better off I am.”