IBHRE Certified Professional: Robert Brayboy, RN, FHRS, CEPS, CCDS
As a nurse who has been active in EP at Boston Medical Center for over 30 years, and has lived through the days of serial testing, “shock box”, non-thermistor catheters, “E for M”, signal averaged ecg, and CABG Patch trials, I’ve been able to see Cardiac Electrophysiology with a full appreciation of how advances in technique and cardiac device therapies have improved our ability to deliver preventative and curative care to our patients.
Over the many years, I’ve gained anecdotal knowledge through reading, observation, and daily case discussions among our EP Staff. This piqued an intellectual curiosity in me to know more about our ever-evolving field. I needed to know how and why intracardiac electrogram patterns led to diagnosis and ablative therapy. I knew I’d be able to confidently explain these devices to my patients and elucidate concepts to nurses caring for them through in-services due to gaining knowledge of a cardiac device’s function and programming and ECG pacing and defibrillation interpretation.
The obvious plan for me was to learn more by studying for, then taking the NASPEx (now IBHRE) exams. This would require me to learn more. Only if it were that easy. As anybody who as ever taken these exams knows, they can be quite anxiety provoking. For as much as I thought I knew and prepared, sadly I was initially unsuccessful with the EP and device exams.
My disappointment led me to double my efforts and successfully challenge myself with the Certified Electrophysiology Specialist (CEPS) exam in 2010 and with the Certified Cardiac Device Specialist (CCDS) in 2016. I’m both happy and proud to say that I passed those exams! I’m sharing this to encourage anyone who is serious about EP who has attempted these tests and may not have passed to try again. I'm always reminded of that saying. . . "Leap, and the net will appear." You’ll find as you study you’ll gain even more knowledge and confidence needed to be successful in and out of the lab. Boston Medical Center encourages IBHRE certification. Several members of our staff have been certified.
I’d like to think that my example might inspire others to challenge themselves to seek CEPS and/or CCDS certification through IBHRE, thereby elevating the level of care we deliver as a team!