Lazy techs!!!!!

Specialties Emergency

Published

Doesn't matter how good of a nurse you are when you get bombarded you get busy. Anyone know the feeling and then all of the sudden you remember you had a tech anyone know or remember those a tech is a person that works in your ER but you don't see it, they have the skills to put and IV or do an Ekg even though you may not know it jejeje.

Please comment a bit about the above subject.

PD: i know there are some tech out there that are terrific thank you very much to those!!

HiddencatRN, it's not inefficient for the techs to get vitals if your monitors don't automatically record that information. I assumed that most modern devices in emergency rooms have that capability. Apparently not.

BP cuffs are often taken off by transporters when pts go to CT scan, XRAY, MRI, and are not always put back on. So it is up to the RNs to make it to all their pts hourly to collect VS.
Hm. Our CT and Xray folks have to put pts back on monitors. Also, do you have a lot of high acuity patients? We do and so that's why we usually record vs a lot more frequently than q 1 hour and why our techs are better served doing more patient care oriented tasks.

Techs are lazy like nurses are lazy. Unless you've teched before, it's hard to understand I think"-- good way to put some perspective on the issue. Thanks for the post.

Specializes in Emergency.

LOL, I've worked with some dousies! One in particular, the triage tech refused to perform an EKG that the triage nurse requested because the patient was "only in their 20s" and reeked of smoke. According to this tech, the patient's c/c of CP had to be respiratory rather than cardiac; therefore, an EKG was unnecessary. When the nurse tried explaining that she was trying to rule out a cardiac etiology and to justify triaging the patient as a 4 (not that a tech needs any such explanation), the tech refused to do the EKG because "it's a waste of my time." The triage nurse handled it much better than I would've; she finished triaging the patient, did the EKG, and walked the patient back herself. Smh!

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

As an LPN who works ED as a primary nurse and "non-RN/tech" I will say that my ED works our techs to the ground.

This past Monday, I was a primary nurse for 8 rooms during an ambulance diversion and a 2 hour lobby wait for our "fast track" area. Which was NOT fast track material. Over 16.5 hours I was responsible for 6 admits with IV abx, pre-op procedures, PE protocols, and 2 small bowel obstructions (got my NG tube insertion experience for the year- even if it was a bit late), in addition to all the breaks, sprains, and strains.... Oh and the *ahem* tenosynovitis as indicative of a positive Finkelstein's test which was something new I learned. Hoozah!

Thanks to being run ragged as a tech over the last few months since my ER dropped the Team nursing model and leaped for a Primary RN nursing model, my prioritization skills and critical thinking skills have increased two-fold and allowed me to successfully manage 8 rooms over that 16 hour day as a primary nurse with 6 admits, multiple suspected appy work ups, 1 PE protocol and 2 CP protocols with hard wired cardiac monitors! I tell you, there are few nurses (RN/LPN alike) who could have done what I did as effectively, and I credit it all to being forced to manage all the work the RNs don't want to do like the catheters, the purposeful rounding, the feedings, the IV abx's, the NG's, the splints, the IV starts, the VS's, the throat swabs and UPT's! I told the patients what I needed before even the doctor ordered it! I stayed on top of the game and rocked it.

I digress, tho! My ED runs our techs to the ground, and having been in the role of tech and primary nurse, I am a better nurse than many because of the experience!

Specializes in Emergency Room, Trauma ICU.
As an LPN who works ED as a primary nurse and "non-RN/tech" I will say that my ED works our techs to the ground.

This past Monday, I was a primary nurse for 8 rooms during an ambulance diversion and a 2 hour lobby wait for our "fast track" area. Which was NOT fast track material. Over 16.5 hours I was responsible for 6 admits with IV abx, pre-op procedures, PE protocols, and 2 small bowel obstructions (got my NG tube insertion experience for the year- even if it was a bit late), in addition to all the breaks, sprains, and strains.... Oh and the *ahem* tenosynovitis as indicative of a positive Finkelstein's test which was something new I learned. Hoozah!

Thanks to being run ragged as a tech over the last few months since my ER dropped the Team nursing model and leaped for a Primary RN nursing model, my prioritization skills and critical thinking skills have increased two-fold and allowed me to successfully manage 8 rooms over that 16 hour day as a primary nurse with 6 admits, multiple suspected appy work ups, 1 PE protocol and 2 CP protocols with hard wired cardiac monitors! I tell you, there are few nurses (RN/LPN alike) who could have done what I did as effectively, and I credit it all to being forced to manage all the work the RNs don't want to do like the catheters, the purposeful rounding, the feedings, the IV abx's, the NG's, the splints, the IV starts, the VS's, the throat swabs and UPT's! I told the patients what I needed before even the doctor ordered it! I stayed on top of the game and rocked it.

I digress, tho! My ED runs our techs to the ground, and having been in the role of tech and primary nurse, I am a better nurse than many because of the experience!

I guess I'm confused as to what your techs scope of practice is because ours are not allowed to give meds, start IV's, insert foleys or NGs, do throat swabs or UPT. All of that is done by myself and my fellow nurses. I'm glad your proud of your day, but that's a standard shift where I come from.

All CA's where I work are union. It's really a shame. I feel like ours are either REALLY good, or totally suck. There is no in between where I work.

I have never, and i really mean, NEVER, seen employees work harder at NOT working than I have at this job.

This, however, is with any occupation. I don't think it has anything to do with the "CA" title, more than it has to do with the person. People either take pride in doing a good job, or they don't. Period.

In my ER its more lazy nurses. We call these nurses "tech hogs". We generally have one tech to two nurses. If you are paired with a tech hog, you can pretty much count on not having any help for the rest of the night.

HiddencatRN, it's not inefficient for the techs to get vitals if your monitors don't automatically record that information. I assumed that most modern devices in emergency rooms have that capability. Apparently not.

I've worked with a range of equipment from pretty nice and new and fancy to dinosaur-age and none of it has automatically dropped vitals in to the system. I'd love to have monitors that did that automaticaly, as I have heard of their existence before, but for now the ultimate responsibility to get vital signs in to the computer rests with me to do or delegate.

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

I'd rather get vitals myself anyway -- it provides a good opportunity reassessment my patient. Besides, a central monitor can't ask about pain, any new issues, etc. Also, the RR on those things is pretty unreliable unless the patient is holding absolutely still, and sometimes we don't have them on the cardiac leads, just the BP and pulse ox. I've never seen a system either that can put the vitals in the EMR, but I've heard rumors they exist. Probably an urban legend. :)

LOL, I've worked with some dousies! One in particular, the triage tech refused to perform an EKG that the triage nurse requested because the patient was "only in their 20s" and reeked of smoke. According to this tech, the patient's c/c of CP had to be respiratory rather than cardiac; therefore, an EKG was unnecessary. When the nurse tried explaining that she was trying to rule out a cardiac etiology and to justify triaging the patient as a 4 (not that a tech needs any such explanation), the tech refused to do the EKG because "it's a waste of my time." The triage nurse handled it much better than I would've; she finished triaging the patient, did the EKG, and walked the patient back herself. Smh!

Wow. As a Tech, I understand 2 things. 1) If the RN or doc asks me for an ECG, I do it.2) I don't get to decide the "cause" of anything! Talk about work outside of your scope!

I'm a tech and I've been running my @ss off the past three weeks (more so than other times) because the town I live in swells from around 15,000 people to 150,000 people for the holidays. It's a resort town that also happens to be about 6,000' higher than were most of our guests come from. So we see a lot of respiratory distress, syncope, dehydration and our 10+ ski resorts provide plenty of ortho trauma among everything else.

On Christmas day I was the only tech (during the holidays we staff up to two techs!) and I got worked, but in the end I took it as a bit of a right of passage. The veterans say that if you can survive the holidays in our small department, then you can make it.

The tech positions are coveted jobs here and pretty much everyone busts their butts because most people know that even if you've been working there for a couple years there are others who are hungrier than you are for a shot at a legitimate job in a resort town.

Refusing to run an EKG? I'd probably get canned on the spot. You gotta be kidding me. Some of the more experienced techs are open to offer their opinions but what they say by no means trumps what any RN says.

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