The Pacific Northwest holds claim to a moderate climate in that it doesn™t get too hot and doesn™t get too cold. I grew up in a decidedly un-moderate climate and that is why I live here. However, rain and wind can settle in here for weeks at a time. I personally have seen it rain every day for eight weeks. I have planted my garden twice because the first crop of seeds rotted in the ground, and I have celebrated the Fourth of July in a sweater as fireworks are blasted into a bank of purple clouds. So when an unexpected sunny day occurs in the middle of February, you will see all manner of summer activities.

On just such a day, I donned long pants, jacket, scarf, gloves, and bounded across town on my bike. I found myself surrounded by similarly-clad people, walking, riding and puttering in their yards; everyone grinning ear-to-ear. Garage doors were flung open and (I™m not exaggerating) there were even people driving around in their convertibles. We were all under the influence of sunshine in February euphoria, so when I came upon two people walking a dog I offered up a smile. As I got closer, I realized that I not only recognized them, but that they were fellow cath lab people.

Of the 200,000 or so people in this area, about 50 work in one of the three cath labs, and here we stood on a street corner, each of us representing our separate labs. Certainly not a world-shaking event, but noteworthy. As impromptu and small as this meeting was, it mirrored my sense of community, one of diverse groups meeting for a single purpose and a feeling of fellowship. The three labs had merged to bask in the warmth of the day.

Two of the three local cath labs are relatively new and we, therefore, don™t know one another that well. Of course, in any grouping of labs there is bleed-over and everyone knows at least a couple of people in each lab. I had met one of these people the previous year when I delivered a bottle of Christmas wine to his lab for a friend. The second I recognized from only a week earlier at our local Society of Invasive Cardiovascular Professionals (SICP) meeting, thus completing this friendly triumvirate.

At any given SICP meeting in Eugene, Oregon, you are going to find people who work in each of the three labs of course! Interestingly, though, you will also find a healthy representation of the departments that admit and recover cath lab patients. Nurses, floor coordinators, managers and schedulers are all part of the mix. These folks have been invited by current SICP members in the spirit of learning and sharing. We know that the more our work is understood, the better the care each patient receives before and after their procedure. A recovery nurse learns exactly how a radial case differs from a femoral. The scheduler understands the timeframes needed for a left heart cath versus a complete heart versus a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Managers learn just how skilled and dedicated we are. When someone from another department comes to a SICP meeting, I know they want to learn and I respect that. They have expressed interest in my work with the intent of improving their own skills. When I next see that person, I am reminded that they took the time to peek into my world and they become more than a casual acquaintance.

The second inspiration that prompted me to write this article is the fact that at each meeting, people from outlying labs take the time and trouble to attend. The cath lab in Corvallis, OR is 50 miles north of Eugene. The cath lab in Roseburg, OR is 70 miles south! These cath lab people are dedicated and interested enough to sacrifice the third Thursday of the month away from their families and responsibilities. They™ve worked all day and have to be back at work in 12 hours, yet they spend an hour on the freeway each direction to attend a SICP meeting. I am always a little humbled by their efforts. Am I going to drive 140 miles on a weeknight for a meeting?

Generally, all of these people come together to learn and share, and to grow and improve in their chosen fields. Specifically, we all meet and benefit from the work of the six people on the local SICP board. These board members spend considerable time preparing and organizing each meeting. Todd Chitwood, the current President of the Oregon Chapter of SICP and President-Elect of the National Society, is a passionate, lively character whose efforts are genuine and infectious. His pledge to the local SICP members is to:

1. Make appropriate CEUs (Continuing Education Units) available at each meeting.

2. To cover all the subjects included in an RCIS exam during the course of our meetings.

Community and a good meal aside, I appreciate these goals. Todd, like the rest of us, has attended enough meetings in his career to know the difference between valuable and wasted time; therefore, he makes sure our meetings are the former.
At their prepatory meetings, the SICP board members agree on an upcoming subject, choose a speaker and arrange the dinner. In speaking to the board members, I learned that a prospective speaker must present their topic eight weeks in advance and provide an outline and a resume proving their qualifications to speak, thus ensuring the CEUs. The speakers have been either physicians or cath lab professionals whose efforts were obviously well-thought out and presented.

Thus far, we have attended presentations on subjects such as CTOs (chronic total occlusions), radial approaches for hearth caths, hemodynamics, pharmacology (a two-part course), pulmonary hypertension, fetal circulation, atrial fibrillation, electrophysiology, and Tako-tsubo (broken heart syndrome). There are currently ten subjects approved for future SICP meetings.

One speaker presented his subject with PowerPoint slides in a comic book-style format, while another made the bewildering world of fetal circulation fascinating. Particularly interesting cases (aka, the weird stuff) are presented and picked apart. Every once in a while, you will hear the whole room say, Oh, I get it!, thus validating the entire Oregon Chapter SICP experience.

We meet at a handsome venue in that it encompasses an upscale sports center, lounge, restaurant/bar and meeting rooms. It is one of the older buildings in Eugene, with mahogany wainscoting, pressed tin ceiling panels and brass plates in the hurky-jurky elevator. You can attend for the social environment and meet with friends over a glass of local brew or wine. Perhaps it is the educational material that will draw you. As I have noted, this portion weighs in substantially. Or you can attend to earn CEU credits. For whatever reason, you come away with more than you arrived with. As stated so well by the Oregon Chapter President-Elect Chris Kambak, It™s a lot more than a free meal.

When I began this article, I did not intend it to be simply an endorsement for SICP meetings, but rather the vehicle in which I would demonstrate cath lab community. However, upon its completion, I discovered that the SICP meetings do not represent the cath lab community, but actually are the cath lab community.

Shirly was in ICU and Surgical LPN nursing from 1978 to 1986, and has been a CVT from 1986 to the present. She can be reached at:
SCoffey@peacehealth.org.