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Michelle Meyer, RN-BC, BSN, MBA, Executive Director for the Cardiovascular Service Line for HCA Healthcare, discusses her abstract ahead of Heart Rhythm 2025, which takes place April 24-27, 2025.

Tell us about your upcoming abstract and the focus of your work. 

I have been a cardiovascular director with HCA for over 15 years and have worked in electrophysiology and cardiology for the past 30 years of my career. The title of our poster presentation is “Impact of an Online Modular Self-Education Tool on the Quality and Duration of Training in Electrophysiology Labs.” For some background on our project, we feel the struggle with staffing our electrophysiology labs. Across the globe, we know we share the same significant shortage of trained personnel. As our curative procedures become increasingly accessible, the demand for well-trained staff becomes more vital. We felt the need to address appropriate training and knowledge that meets operational needs, and consider that a very important part of creating a successful electrophysiology program. We know that this often takes anywhere from 18 to 24 months, if not longer, to fully train an EP lab technician or nurse.

What are the take-home messages you would like readers to leave with? 

Some take-home messages from our pipeline staffing project were to think outside the box when looking at staffing solutions in places that require complex competencies or specialty-type certifications. This includes looking outside of the box as leaders in creating venues in which we can identify more healthcare personnel, whether it is exercise physiologists or ECG technicians, wherever they are at in their career pathway. It also includes thinking about how we can better engage frontline staff members and early entry staff members in the CV program and get them enrolled in these self-education training tools. 

Another take-home message we have learned is the importance in investing in and budgeting for staff education. Budgeting time for staff education really leveraged that need and the return on investment with administrative teams. Also, physician engagement was a huge proponent in our success. The physicians were our biggest cheerleaders and embraced the entry staff members into the EP lab, knowing that they were transitioning through these self-training modules. Physician engagement really helped promote staff confidence and engagement in learning both basic and advanced EP. 

We also engaged vendor support for help. I think that a lot of new leaders in EP often forget the importance of all the resources outside of their control. When we engage our vendors in the EP world, doors open. They have so many resources for education and can help support onsite learning. They are there to help and support both you as an EP leader and your program.

The transcripts have been edited for clarity and length.