Does an EKG tech know much about what they're seeing?

Answer 1

I am an EKG technician. I can tell you, that while we do learn different patterns that may show up in the tracing, and irregularities to look out for, we are not the doctor. No matter what we see, we need to take the tracing to the doctor to examine and he will look at it and then tell the patient if he sees any problems. So, while we may know if something is wrong..it doesn't matter. We won't be the ones to tell you. We go to school to learn about the EKG machine, the way it works, the electrode placement, how to talk to the patient and run the EKG on them. It's a very good, professional and meaningful job. It's just not our place to discuss it with the patient. You can't graduate from an EKG program without learning some of the major irregularities. You learn all about the QRS complex and p waves and what they mean.