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Specialized arrhythmia nurses embrace lifelong learning

February 3, 2025

February is Heart Month, and over the month, we’ll profile just a few members of our skilled and compassionate Schulich Heart Program team.

Cathy Perri is up to speed on the technical aspects of over 20 individual heart devices that help control or monitor irregular heartbeats in people with heart rhythm disorders. Keeping up with all these devices, as well as ongoing changes in algorithms and tools, is critically important to providing excellent care to patients with implantable cardiac devices.

She’s part of a team of seven registered nurses in Sunnybrook’s Arrhythmia Clinic who work together to assist implanting 500 devices in patients a year, in addition to following roughly 6500 patients.

“With such a breadth of technology, and our high patient volumes, I’m always learning,” says Cathy.

Her colleague, Jiangli Ye, agrees. While the two nurses are at different stages of their career – Cathy has worked with arrhythmia patients since 2001 and Jiangli for just over a year – they can’t imagine working in a more dynamic area of healthcare.

Millions of Canadians experience irregular heart rhythms, known as arrhythmia. While many types of arrhythmias have no symptoms or warning signs, others may be life-threatening. Cathy and Jiangli see patients with pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), as well as those with heart failure requiring biventricular devices to improve left ventricular function. Patients of all ages and with varying severity of cardiac disease are managed by the medical and nursing team within the device clinic.

“We see any patient at Sunnybrook who has a heart device and help advise on how it will impact their care plan. This could be a patient who comes in through the Emergency Department and requires surgery, or someone who needs an MRI. Our days are never dull – every case is different,” says Cathy.

For a nurse new to the area, like Jiangli, the learning curve is steep. She followed Cathy for a year to observe and acquire the complex skills to care for arrhythmia patients. “We’re learning firsthand from the industry experts, plus doing our own independent and self-directed learning, then of course learning from each other.” This team approach to learning and provision of care allows the group to excel at providing excellence in patient care.

In addition to the specialized training, the role has a strong patient education component, with Jiangli saying she especially enjoys teaching patients about heart health and lifestyle factors like smoking.

For both professionals, the ability to laugh and learn together is a highlight of each day. “This is a great team. We learn together and support each other. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” says Cathy.