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Discussion

Anesthesia tech duties

I am just curious as to how other facilities are utilizing the anesthesia techs. In other hospitals I have worked in, the AT comes in when the patient arrives to the OR, helps with intubation, runs for meds, blood products, blood gasses, helps with the Bair Hugger, and changes out the circuits/carts at the end of the case. At my current facility, the AT's change out the carts and circuits. That's it. What are the expectations of the AT's in your hospital?

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    All of our anesthesia techs also function as ORAs. Most of the ORAs went through training as ATs, and now we only hire for AT positions. So in addition to helping with intubations/holding for spinals and epidurals/assisting with line insertion/changing circuits/restocking carts/running labs, they also help with room turnover, go get patients from the floors/ER, run to blood bank or pharmacy, and everything else.

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    WOW! That is golden in my book! You guys have a clear expectation of your ATs and I think your utilization of their skills can only lead to faster turn over times, better patient satisfaction, and happier surgeons. I wonder how in the world I will be able to take a proposal to my nurse manager outlining an overhaul of the AT duties at my hospital. They are typically very slow to change, but are in desperate need to make a change. I will put something together, but doubt very seriously that it will be considered. Thanks for sharing, Poet. This helps.

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    My ATS do the same as poets.

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    A lot of it depends on training, intelligence, motivation, etc. Some anesthesia techs function at a very basic level - they change circuits and stock carts, and that's about it. That's probably all they've been trained to do. There are some that clearly shouldn't be doing more than that.

    Others go much further - assisting with lines or blocks, setting up transducers, etc. However, these folks have some training to go along with those skills and responsibilities. Just because you think your anesthesia techs aren't doing enough doesn't mean they should be doing more.

    BTW, there is a national certification process available for anesthesia techs, and they also have their own professional organization.

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    • Author

    JWK-Thanks for the input. I have a lot of faith in our techs, and several of them ARE certified. There just seems to be a lot of standing around going on where I work, and I believe that we could utilize them more to streamline our scheduled cases so that we aren't running too many rooms at the end of the day. I appreciate your input!

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