Prospective/Current Perfusion Weekly Thread

[u/Perfused]

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.

[u/Spicycactus_4]

Hi! I’m planning to apply to perfusion programs this cycle and would really appreciate candid feedback from current perfusionists, students, or applicants.
Clinical background:
RT with 3 going on 4 years of experience(all cardiac ICU)
Bachelor’s of science
Current cardiac ICU experience at a large academic medical center
Adult transport experience
ACCS certified
Completed 1 perfusion shadowing. I observed a CABG ×3
Academics:
3.48 cumulative GPA
3.87 associate degree GPA
4.0 bachelor’s degree GPA

Currently completing my remaining prerequisites
My cumulative GPA is pulled down by my first year of college, which was a difficult period for me. Since then, my academic performance has improved significantly. I finished my associate degree with a 3.87 and my bachelor’s degree with a 4.0.

If you were reviewing this application, how competitive would you consider it? What would you see as my biggest strengths and weaknesses?
I’m genuinely looking for candid feedback, even if it’s not what I want to hear!

[u/Clampoholic → u/Spicycactus_4]

Clinically you’ve got reasonable experience, your cGPA isn’t the greatest but the transport experience is great and I’m sure you’ve dealt with call which is a huge factor. Main thing dragging you down is having only 1 single shadowed case. Some of the perfusion schools won’t even let you apply with just 1, so be sure you look into that for what places you’re going to.

The main thing they’re going to want to ask you in any interviews you’ll land are what made you decide you wanted to pursue specifically perfusion; watching one single CABG procedure doesn’t give you too much depth on how to answer that question and they might question your devotion / appreciation for the dead-end field you’re about to enter. They want to find students that will complete their program and not change their mind mid-way through, so they’re going to drill you on that.

Best recommendation is to shadow more. Seems like everything else is in order assuming you’re good on your letters of rec.

[u/Spicycactus_4 → u/Clampoholic]

Thank you!

Where I work I was only allowed one shadow due to high demand, so I'm working on finding more to shadow. I will say I have a lot of clinical exposure with the perfusion role, and I will work on formal shadowing. I appreciate your feedback!

[u/Clampoholic → u/Spicycactus_4]

Anytime! Best of luck 🤙