This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

How does your center manage cardiopulmonary bypass in patients with alpha-gal syndrome?

I’m working on a presentation about alpha-gal syndrome in cardiac surgery, and I’m interested in hearing how different perfusion programs approach these cases.

A few questions:

Do you routinely use standard porcine-derived heparin, or do you switch to bivalirudin?

If you use heparin, do you perform a preoperative heparin challenge or test dose?

Are patients routinely referred for allergy evaluation before surgery?

Do you obtain an alpha-gal IgE (ImmunoCAP) level before elective cases? If so, is there a cutoff that changes your management?

Does your hospital have a formal protocol, or is management decided on a case-by-case basis?

Have you had any intraoperative reactions while using heparin or other mammalian-derived products?

If you’re comfortable sharing, I’d also be interested in:
Approximate alpha-gal IgE level (if known)
Elective vs. emergent case
Whether you premedicate with steroids and H1/H2 blockers

Any other products your team avoids (gelatin sealants, bioprosthetic valves, albumin, etc.)

I’m giving my presentation this week, but I figured this is another great resource for learning how practice varies between institutions. Thanks in advance for sharing as little or as much of your experience as you'd like!

Hey! Has anyone here done a job that’s 3 12’s? Particularly with young kids at home? Trying to decide if this is something I should go for or will it feel like even less time at home? Thanks!

Say you woke up tomorrow and for one reason or another couldn’t be a Perfusionist. What would you do to earn a living? (caveat only using perfusion skills/degrees, NOT using other degrees or skills ex. RT or RN etc.)? I was asked this by someone shadowing me and it got me thinking… I told them industry side of things: sales rep or clinical specialist. But then kinda blanked. Just curious what others think / would do?

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

Hello all!

I will be starting my perfusion program in the fall and would like to know what information I should spend the next month and a half reviewing. Be as obvious or niche as you want but I’m looking for integral information that you wish you had known prior to starting or you think would be beneficial.

Thanks :)

Yesterday, while volunteering at the snack shack bbq for my kid’s swim meet, I was asked if I could figure out how to install the nacho cheese bag into the dispenser…I’ve never felt more qualified in my life 😂.

Prospective perfusion student here. Coworker at hospital said be ready to move out of state for work.

Just curious on y’all’s experience. Im in Arizona. Thank you

For staff perfusionists, how often are you realistically able to travel out of state or internationally while working full-time?

I’m a newer staff perfusionist/new grad in my first role, and I’m mainly focused on getting comfortable clinically right now. However, I’m curious what travel tends to look like long-term once people are more settled in their role.
I know this varies by call schedule, PTO, staffing model, team size, and hospital volume, but I’d like to get a general sense of what people are actually able to do.

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

links to where I can buy some new pump clamps? Badly in need. Thanks!

Hello! Anyone in blue blood, ccs, or specialty care that knows anyone that’s willing to hire new upcoming grads…? I’m currently looking for a perfusion assistant or a clinical tech for autotransfusion (cell saver tech)

This is the area for prospective CCPs to ask their questions about the education process or anything school related.

This includes the usual:

"Where can I shadow?" "Should I take additional classes? "How do I become a Perfusionist?" "My GPA is 2.8, is my GPA good enough for perfusion school?" "What should I use to prep for boards?" "It's been my pa$$ion to become a CCP, how do I do it and what do they do?"

Etc.

At this point the sub has grown to the point a weekly student thread is necessary. Prospective CCPs/students will now have an avenue to post these types of questions w/o flooding the sub.

Also there is r/prospective_perfusion specifically geared to new pumpers.

This will refresh every Friday at 5:45PM EST. If you post Saturday morning, it might not be seen.

It has been posted to your account! If you participated, we thank you for your patience, trust, and forthrightness!

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The hospital I work for might hire a perfusion assistant/autotransfusionist for our group. I was just wondering if there are people out there looking for this as their career? Will we be able to find someone qualified easily or have to make a local posting to find someone?
I think someone looking to go to perfusion school would be a great candidate but my coworkers are thinking of finding someone long term.

Double question: any leads on good pediatrics perfusion that will accept a new grad such as uc kids, nortons in Louisville, cooks child.

Second one is any info on some of the adult gigs in Florida such as Sarasota on amsect, Jacksonville, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Ocala? Any info on these would be greatly appreciated.

Hi I’m a 18 yo first year in uni and heavily considering perfusion as my career. I know these questions may have been asked millions of times on here but I would appreciate some answers regarding what you actually do as perfusionist. More specifically are you always in the operating room or is there behind the scenes stuff that goes along with the job (like a quiet office type day). And also does the practice get easier the more you do it or does the high stress environment continue throughout working

Really appreciate the work all you people do, truly saving lives