Quick Poll:

What functions do the nursing assistants provide in your ER?

Does your ER have good RN/Assistant relationships?

What requirements does your ER place on new-hire assistants?

What is your ER's nursing assistant to patient ratio?

I'll go first...

What functions do the nursing assistants provide in your ER?

stocking rooms, transporting patients, drawing blood, helping place patients in gowns, entering lab orders...the problem is that there is no real way to hold them accountable to actually doing these duties and MOST of the time all of these duties fall back on the RNs

Does your ER have good RN/Assistant relationships?

No. The assistants (we call them "techs") don't like to be asked to do anything but when nothing is being done the RNs ask the techs to do something and the techs usually come up with some reason why they can't do what is asked of them...although, this is not true for all of our techs, some are really, really helpful

What requirements does your ER place on new-hire assistants?

no previous experience required but must pass EKG class (for telemetry monitoring), phlebotomy class, and BCLS

What is your ER's nursing assistant to patient ratio?

on a good day (which are rare) it is about 1:6. Usually it is about 1:20 and sometimes it is 1:52 !

what functions do the nursing assistants provide in your er? start iv's, do ekg's, set up rooms, place pt's on monitors, foleys.

does your er have good rn/assistant relationships? yes

what requirements does your er place on new-hire assistants? need to go through a training program and get signed off on all aspects prior to them working on there own.

what is your er's nursing assistant to patient ratio? 1 tech to 8 to 10 patients.

What functions do the nursing assistants provide in your ER?

Basic care, interpreting (our techs are fluent in Spanish), registration if the clerk is busy, phone work, transporting, supply ordering

Does your ER have good RN/Assistant relationships?

VERY good. We work as a close team

What requirements does your ER place on new-hire assistants?

One on one orientation for a month, BLS cert

What is your ER's nursing assistant to patient ratio?

One tech per shift always.

What functions do the nursing assistants provide in your ER? transport, EKG's, lab draws, accu checks, vitals, specimen collection, stocking, wound cleaning, splints, ordering, giving admission clerk breaks, clean rooms, errand runner, d/c IV, Foleys (if trained).

Does your ER have good RN/Assistant relationships? For the most part - if they come to work and do their job and keep their mouth shut the relationship is great!!!

What requirements does your ER place on new-hire assistants? We like ours to be EMT-B or in NS but we have been known to take a few CNA's in the past. We have a 2-3 week 1:1 orientation, check off skills list, etc...and they have to be BLS w/in 1 month of hire.

What is your ER's nursing assistant to patient ratio? We have a tech that works 24/7 now but works different hours that the RN's in the ER (they work 10-10 for some reason). We are a 6-8 bed facility