ECG technicians operate complex machines to monitor heart activity of a patient. Today many institutions offer EKG technician training teaching students how to perform this procedure and other health related topics.

Training programs for an ECG technician

While there is an option to get on workplace training, many people choose certificate programs in a community college or vocational school. There are echocardiography, electrocardiography, medical terminology, bedside manner, physiology, phlebotomy, legal issues for the EKG technician and other courses, future EKG techs will learn.

Students learn how to interact with patients and other stuff, interpret graphs, use Holter monitor and identify heart rhythms. They are provided with hands on experience that teaches them how to operate EKG equipment.

Certification

Although passing a certification exam may not be the main criterion, many employers require ECG technicians to be certified. EKG technicians are certified through several nationally recognized organizations. To be eligible to pass an exam, you need to learn a program of training and get some experience.

Career opportunities for EKG Technicians

ECG technicians perform electrocardiograms to measure and record heart activity as a way to diagnose and treat heart disease. Some technicians are trained to perform Holter monitor or stress tests, both of which involve connecting the electrodes on the patient’s body to obtain a read-out. The Holter monitor tracks the patient’s heart over one day, while the stress test is required to use a treadmill to see how a patient’s heart responds to exercise. EKG technicians work in a variety of places, such as clinical cardiology hospital, cardiac rehabilitation centers, doctors’ offices and emergency rooms.

Career and salary

According to the latest statistics EKG technicians are in demand due to the aging population and generation of baby-boomers and the increasing rate of heart disease. Specialists with training in stress testing and Holter monitoring will get more job opportunities.

A Daily Telegraph investigation found evidence of exam boards seemingly giving teachers excessive guidance during seminars. 

John Wood, incoming chairman of the Independent Schools Association, said competition between major exam boards had damaged the “integrity” of the system.

He said it “cannot be right” that examiners can make money from selling advice to schools while also setting objective tests.

The comments came after a Daily Telegraph investigation into exam boards in England and Wales.

Last month, undercover reporters filmed senior examiners advising teachers at £230-a-day seminars about the exact wording that pupils should use and which questions they could expect.

Ofqual is now investigating the role of the advice sessions amid fears teachers are being given unfair help. It could lead to them being abolished or subjected to new regulations.

The state is laying the groundwork for education improvements using its federal Race to the Top grant, but slow hiring of the dozens of employees needed to do the work have hampered progress, according to a federal report.

The U.S. Department of Education is releasing one-year progress reports today on states that won the education improvement grants. North Carolina won a $400 million, four-year grant in 2010.

By October 2011, the state had hired about 80 percent of the 118 people needed for the professional development and technology-intensive efforts, according to the report. The state “underestimated the time necessary to move from planning to implementation,” the report said.

Bill Harrison, chairman of the Governor’s Education Transformation Commission, said hiring for some jobs took longer than anticipated, but those overseeing the changes are pleased with the overall progress.

“We feel great about what we’re doing,” said Harrison, who is also state Board of Education chairman. “We’ll be able to see the fruits of those dollars in a couple of years through student achievement.”

Thousands of teachers and principals have participated in professional development activities related to Race to the Top goals, Harrison said, and the state board is pleased with the progress on new teacher and principal effectiveness measures.

In its proposal, the state set targets for student improvement, including a goal of raising the graduation rate to 85 percent in 2016, and promised to implement “turnaround” plans for low-performing schools.

Scores on national reading and math tests for 4th- and 8th-grade students missed their targets in 2011, according to the report. Only the 8th-grade reading score was significantly higher in 2011 compared to 2009.

State progress on closing the achievement gap is a mixed bag. Considering English test scores, the gap between white and minority students narrowed, while the achievement gap between children with disabilities and non-disabled children grew.

North Carolina, like other states that won grants, promised to make specific, long-lasting improvements to education. But the money cannot be used to hire classroom teachers or principals to compensate for state budget cuts.

Don’t let the tube socks fool you, North Carolina comes to play.

At least one member of this top-10 team (and sometimes all five) shows up each round in knee-high white tube socks with Tar Heel blue stripes. It speaks to a team dynamic that’s sometimes unusual when college golf gets intense.

“We work hard but we want to have a good time,” head coach Jan Mann explained. “We want to keep golf in perspective and keep a balance there.”

Wardrobe aside, North Carolina seems to have found a magic formula. What the Tar Heels lack in a superstar, they make up in sheer consistency. Two of North Carolina’s starting five, Casey Grice and Jackie Chang, finished the fall ranked inside Golfweek’s top 50. Senior Allie White comes in at No. 82. Courtney Gunter and Catherine O’Donnell, who battled a thumb injury this fall before undergoing surgery in the offseason, can contribute a solid fourth score, as can Katherine Perry.

Mann, in her third year at the Tar Heel, has yet to see a team like this in Chapel Hill.

“I can’t put a finger on one individual that works harder than the other or is the deciding factor for our success,” Mann said. “Everybody contributes.”

Mann describes the team as a family, but there still are important roles played within it. That of team leader (and perhaps class clown) falls on White, who began her college career at North Carolina, transferred to Ohio State, then returned to North Carolina last season.

“To have been honored to be associated with Allie,” Mann said. “…She does keep things in perspective.”

Top of the class: North Carolina

Best player this fall: Lindy Duncan, Duke

Past Champions

2011: North Carolina

2010: Wake Forest

2009: Wake Forest

2008: Duke

2007: Duke

Conference preview

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STATE COLLEGE, Pa. Penn State may still be without a replacement for fired coach Joe Paterno by the time the Nittany Lions play in the TicketCity Bowl on Jan. 2

The six-person search committee is taking a “very deliberate and measured approach to the process in order to identify the coach that best fits the requirements of the position,” acting athletic director Dave Joyner said Thursday in a written statement.

• Surreal day for Nebraska, Penn State Nov. 13, 2011
• Penn State trustees promise to search for truth Nov. 11, 2011
• Paterno gone, but questions at Penn State remain Nov. 11, 2011
• Penn State shaken after firing of Paterno Nov. 10, 2011
• Tom Bradley named PSU interim head coach Nov. 10, 2011

School president Rodney Erickson and Joyner had both said they hoped to have a new coach before No. 24 Penn State’s bowl game.

But Thursday, Joyner said a new coach would be introduced “at the appropriate time,” and the statement offered no specific timeline.

Erickson was out of town Thursday for the holidays. Spokesman Bill Mahon said Joyner was providing Erickson with regular updates.

“I think they have both emphasized the most important element here is to get the right coach, not speed up the timing of the search,” Mahon said. “There is no update on possible timing.”

Longtime defensive coordinator Tom Bradley has been running the program on an interim basis since school trustees fired Paterno on Nov. 9 in the aftermath of child sex abuse charges against retired defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky .

Paterno is not a target of an into the Sandusky case by the state attorney general’s office, though he was dismissed amid mounting criticism that school leaders should have done more to prevent alleged abuse. Sandusky, who has maintained his innocence, is awaiting trial.

Making a good hire, and soon, is generally seen as a critical step to secure the future of Penn State’s storied football program. A couple of recruits have already revoked their commitments to the school in the wake of the Sandusky scandal.

Erickson said earlier this month one of the top criteria in the coaching search is “how that person would fit into the value system of Penn State, which clearly has to be honesty, integrity and commitment to excellence in academics.”

According to Joyner, the school “is continuing to talk with individuals that we’re interested in and work through the interview process.” He called it a “very important hire for Penn State.”

Bradley and defensive line coach Larry Johnson are among those who have been interviewed.

Green Bay quarterbacks coach Tom Clements was scheduled to have a phone interview last week, USA Today has reported. At Packers practice Thursday, Clements declined comment on whether he was interested in the job and would not confirm if he had interviewed for it.

Nebraska’s Bo Pelini also emerged this week on the seemingly endless rumored list of potential college-level prospects. Pelini after practice Tuesday called the reports irresponsible and untrue, and said he had not interviewed at Penn State.

As for the Nittany Lions, players have gone home for the holidays. They are scheduled to regroup Monday in Dallas to prepare for the bowl game against No. 20 Houston.

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