Tech's in the ER

Lil_Skipper04 · Sep 9, 2005

Just be yourself. Tell them why you'd like to work in emergency, and admit you're nuts for wanting to do it. j/k
Stick to the first part. Let them know that you want to be a nurse, and if they have a shortage of nurses, tell them you'd LOVE to get the experience so you can be a better nurse, probably for them.

Thanks! & yes, I am nuts for wanting to do it. LOL, I work in a nursing home now & I feel looney for doing it sometimes. But I am such an adrenaline junkie.

Fraggle · Sep 10, 2005

I start IV's, draw blood, foley cath, straight cath, splint, wrap, crutch, EKG, setup for gyn, lac, i&d, and so on. I'm a 2nd yr nursing student, though, so the RN's can trust me to do these all pretty well.

I only have one nurse that talks down to me. She's a new grad and I'm trying to cut her some slack for it. It wouldn't be so bad if she weren't wrong so often. :rolleyes: It's not like she's not adapting school to real-world, she's literally just wrong a lot. But then she get's that "I'm a nurse and you're a tech" 'tude, so there's no reasoning with her. I just want to tell her that being 9 months ahead of me in school does not make her better with the Accucheck.

kat911 · Sep 10, 2005

Howdy Yall
from deep in the heat of texas
Well, essarge, where is this place at anyway. The ER Im in has had internet access for years and No one has ever found time to browse the net or play games ever.
I like my techs. There isnt one I look down on. Well there is one I look down at , and that is because she displays remarkable cleavage... just joking.....................maybe
doo wah ditty

:chuckle Tom, sooo baaad! I worked with a paramedic once who had a similiar problem, I don't think he looked at my face for the first six months we worked together! :rotfl: Problem probably isn't the right word, I'm sure he didn't feel he had a problem. We use ED techs they are all EMT's minimum. They do IV's, foley's, blood draw's, EKG's and of course all the ususal NA stuff. Some staff don't treat them very well, others work and play well together. The ED would be total chaos without them.

Sarasgrd94 · Sep 11, 2005

Our small rural hospital has several techs in the ER. I would like to know what role techs play in other, larger ERs. Do they start IV's, do EKG's, draw blood, pass meds? There has been some question here about what they have been trained to do in the past, and what they will be allowed to do in the future. I'd love to hear from any smaller ED's that use techs too...thanks...

i worked as an ER tech prior to nursing school. I worked in a level 1 trauma center in a large teaching hospital. We were required to be phlebotomist as well as cna 2. we drew blood, placed heplocks, urinary caths etc. No meds. I don't think a the state would allow that. It was a very demanding job, but I learned so much.

student4ever · Sep 14, 2005

I am an ED tech. I do many of the things described here... but I cannot give discharge instructions (unless it's because the patient does not speak english, since I do speak spanish, but the nurse tells me exactly what to tell the patient, and if they ask me a question that I don't know the answer, I drag the nurse in the room), cannot start or d/c IVs, or anything with meds. I actually got written up one time for giving a friend who was with a family member in the ER some tylenol from my own stash in my locker because she had a headache, because as the NM said, I was dispensing meds while on duty, which is not in my job description. Since I am a nursing student, some of the nurses have volunteered to let me practice IVs, injections, etc. on them when I get to that part of nursing school (I'm finishing up prerequisites now). Even though I won't be allowed to do a lot of stuff at work that I will be trained to do until I'm a graduate, the nurses I work with are very supportive and are trying to give me all the experience they can with my job as a patient care tech. They pull me in on interesting cases and explain the interventions and reasons for it, and let me go through the motions of things in practice, but of course I'm not allowed to practice on patients. It's awesome to work with a group of people so committed to helping me get the best experiences and the best knowledge base to help me become a good nurse. I know they want well-prepared graduate nurses coming to work for them, and that's why they do it. My nurse manager told me that she will let me poke her a bazillion times until I get IV starts right... nevermind that I'll be nervous as heck poking my boss!! Of all the bizarre things though, I love doing foleys... it's so satisfying to be able to do a cath on an 80 yr old woman who can't open her legs d/t a hip fx, and get it on the first try! I enjoy throwing myself into difficult tasks so I can learn the basics so well I can do them in my sleep because I know it will make the more complex tasks that much easier in nursing school!

kat911 · Sep 14, 2005

:uhoh21:

I am an ED tech. I do many of the things described here... but I cannot give discharge instructions (unless it's because the patient does not speak english, since I do speak spanish, but the nurse tells me exactly what to tell the patient, and if they ask me a question that I don't know the answer, I drag the nurse in the room), cannot start or d/c IVs, or anything with meds. I actually got written up one time for giving a friend who was with a family member in the ER some tylenol from my own stash in my locker because she had a headache, because as the NM said, I was dispensing meds while on duty, which is not in my job description. Since I am a nursing student, some of the nurses have volunteered to let me practice IVs, injections, etc. on them when I get to that part of nursing school (I'm finishing up prerequisites now). Even though I won't be allowed to do a lot of stuff at work that I will be trained to do until I'm a graduate, the nurses I work with are very supportive and are trying to give me all the experience they can with my job as a patient care tech. They pull me in on interesting cases and explain the interventions and reasons for it, and let me go through the motions of things in practice, but of course I'm not allowed to practice on patients. It's awesome to work with a group of people so committed to helping me get the best experiences and the best knowledge base to help me become a good nurse. I know they want well-prepared graduate nurses coming to work for them, and that's why they do it. My nurse manager told me that she will let me poke her a bazillion times until I get IV starts right... nevermind that I'll be nervous as heck poking my boss!! Of all the bizarre things though, I love doing foleys... it's so satisfying to be able to do a cath on an 80 yr old woman who can't open her legs d/t a hip fx, and get it on the first try! I enjoy throwing myself into difficult tasks so I can learn the basics so well I can do them in my sleep because I know it will make the more complex tasks that much easier in nursing school!

:uhoh21: I cn't believe they wrote you up for giving someone your own tylenol. Anyone can "dispense" OTC meds to a friend. You didn't give away the hospitals meds and you didn't give meds to a patient, no problem! NMaybe you should tray a few IV sticks on your boss. :rotfl:

TinyNurse, RN · Sep 17, 2005

Techs..........

I've worked at level I's and the techs can do just bout everything.......lab draws, foleys, transport plain tele. ( TN)

Then I've worked at level I's where the techs can't do any of that.(CA)

I honestly think it depends on the state that you work in.