Chief perfusionist

Pay in the destination countries

Monthly, in US dollars. Each country is an Imora admission package — open one for that route's fees, language requirement and deadline.

What does the day look like?

Your clinical core is running the heart-lung machine for open-heart surgery: priming the circuit, managing blood flow, oxygenation, temperature, anticoagulation and cardioplegia, watching blood gases and electrolytes, weaning from bypass, and fixing circuit problems under the surgeon and anaesthetist. The named hardware is Stockert, Sorin and LivaNova, Maquet and Getinge pumps, Medtronic circuits, Terumo oxygenators and reservoirs, with blood-gas analysers, activated clotting time monitors, cerebral oximetry, cell salvage devices and intra-aortic balloon pumps at the bedside.

Around that you cover extracorporeal membrane oxygenation rounds and priming, ventricular assist device support, standby for transplants and aortic dissections, blood conservation, perfusion records, equipment checks and stock. As chief you add rota design, on-call cover, competency sign-off, protocols, incident review, audit submission, procurement and vendor liaison, budget input, hiring panels and trainee mentoring. Hands on the pump is the smaller share of a chief week in routine periods; administration, meetings, cover gaps and safety work are the larger share. The work is theatre-based, long cases standing at the console, with transplant and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation emergencies outside daytime hours, so shift work, night work and recall to hospital are structural.

Where does this lead?