Do you use EMT's as ancillary staff in ED, need guidelines

[2ndCareerRN]

I am presently working in a small, remote federal facility. We have our own EMT-B's in house as ambulace crew. We want to start using them in the ER for ancillary staff. We have had a very high turnover of CNA's who work as ER techs. It seems that this is just not their cup of tea.

Does anyone have experience with the use of EMT's in a tech role in the ER? And, if you do, do you have guidelines in writing outlining their responsibilities? If you do, I woul appreciate hearing from you. Any guidelines in use elsewhere could probably be implimented here in one form or the other.

thanks

bob

[walnuttree91]

We use them when we are short on techs, and they are a great asset, since they can start IVs-saves the RNs a great deal oftime. We are exploring the idea of replacing the techs with medics.

[Pete495]

Our EMT's in the ER are called EDT's, emerg. dept technician. In our ER, they can do anything a regular EMT can do, and also blood draws, and dropping of an NGT. They do a lot of the typical nursing assistant stuff too though, which kinda sucks, but someone's gotta do it. They don't have nursing assitants in our ER. i suspect because of the acuity they sometimes get through the door. the experience with trauma and ambulance patients is a big asset in the ER