ECMO specialist
| Highest | $7,500 / mo · United States |
|---|---|
| Experience | 2–4 yrs |
| Degree | Required |
| First paycheck | prior degree + perfusion programme + PBSE and CAPE |
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.
| Country | Monthly |
|---|---|
| United StatesTOEFL 80–100 · $10–70k | $7,500max |
| SwitzerlandIELTS 6.5 · CHF 0.9–8k | $7,200 |
| CanadaIELTS 6.0–6.5 · CAD 20–40k | $7,200 |
| NorwayIELTS 6.0–6.5 · NOK 130–260k | $7,150 |
| GermanyIELTS 6.5 · €0–3k | $7,050 |
| FinlandIELTS 6.0–6.5 · €6–18k | $7,050 |
What does the day look like?
You work with the heart-lung machine, the ECMO console with pump, membrane lung (oxygenator), heat exchanger, cannulae, tubing circuit, ventricular assist devices (VAD), and autotransfusion and blood-therapy equipment. The concrete work is priming the circuit, starting and managing cardiopulmonary bypass in the operating room, running ECMO at the ICU bedside for days to weeks per patient, titrating pump flow and sweep gas, monitoring anticoagulation and blood gases, troubleshooting circuit emergencies, and joining intra-hospital and inter-hospital transport of cannulated patients. There are 2 types of ECMO: VA for heart and lung together, VV for lung only.
Operating the machine during open-heart surgery is about 1 of 3 parts of the job. The other 2 of 3 parts are ICU bedside vigilance, nights on call, documentation, stock and equipment checks, teaching, and audit. Nights, weekends, and call-back are structural because ECMO runs continuously and bypass follows the operating list plus emergencies: ELSO writes that the specialist is at the bedside, in the unit, rounding, or on call 24 hours a day.
Where does this lead?
Next step up
People arrive from
What do you make of this job?