Are you a night owl? Do you function better in the wee hours of the morning? Are you interested in a health career in the Medical Field? Are you interested in a job change? If you answered yes to any of these questions, have I got the perfect job for you!
In the field of sleep technologist, you assist in the evaluation and follow up care of patients with sleep disorders. Credited by the Board of Registered Polysomnographic Technology, it would allow you to work in sleep centers, laboratories for the sleep related breathing disorders, home environments and non-facility based settings under the direction of a sleep specialist. Some of your duties would be the following:
-Ensuring the instruments are properly functioning
-completing required equipment and patient signals calibrations at beginning and end of the study.
-running continuous polkysomnographic monitoring
-responding to and correcting equipment malfunction
-recognizing sleep stages and wakefulness
-maintaining a log study events and interventions
-making the patient comfortable and safe
-performing evaluation of excessive sleepiness and the ability to maintain wakefulness
You’ll also be having some hands on jobs as well such as reviewing the patients clinical history to understand the sleep related problems they are experiencing. You’ll be recording the patients vital signs of weight, height, neck circumference, medical history and blood pressure. Discussing with the patients ways to help develop better sleep habits that will promote good sleep hygiene will also be one of your duties.
Excellent communication skills are also a plus. You may find yourself talking to the patient about the questions and concerns they might have about the procedure and treatment. You’ll be talking to the patients family, the Sleep Medicine physician, and other technologists and physicians. Communication with the other nighttime workers and also with the daytime co-workers who’ll be taking over the study about concerns, finding and interventions about the patient. You’ll be communicating with the physician through various means including conversation, written logs and electronic logs about the course of the study, significant findings and observations and interventions used and the results of those interventions.
You may be qualified and asked to perform other tasks and duties as well such as administer and manage a sleep center, sleep lab, or other sleep Medicine practice. This would include patient scheduling, material and supply management, supervision of staff, students and other personnel, help with the development of policies and procedures, billing, preventative maintenance and data management. You could also be asked to do clinical and didactic teaching, training, raising public awareness and supervising patient support groups related to sleep disorders.
Some of the physical requirements of this job would be standing, using hands to finger or feel, reach with hands and arms, climb or balance. You would occasionally be asked to walk, sit, stoop, kneel crouch or crawl. You should be able to lift regularly up to 10 pounds and frequently lift and move up to 50 pounds. You also have to have close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.
If this jobs sounds like something you’d be interested in, why not take that leap, make a career move and inquire further? It could be just the job in health care you’re looking for!
by
Linda Lee Ruzicka
Linda Lee Ruzicka lives in the mountains of Western PA , happily married and with her 9 cats and three dogs. She has been published in Twilight Times, Dark Krypt, Fables, Writing Village, June Cotner anthology, The Grit, Reminisce and the book, Haunted Encounters: Friends and Family. She also does freelance work for Beyond.com, HealthcareJobsite.com and HealthcareJobsiteBlog
