Orthopedic Nurse Tech

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Can anyone tell me specifically what a nurse tech in an orthopedic center does on a daily basis? I'm a 2nd year nursing student and have an interview soon for a nurse tech job and would love to gather more information from RN's or other nurse techs on what will be expected of me. Thx

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Specializes in Developmental Disabilites,.

Hi. I'm an ortho nurse. Our techs do the basic CNA stuff plus they are specially trained to deal with ortho and spine pts. They know the different precautions, how to move these pts and how to set up the equiment we use. Ortho pts can be very time consuming because they move slow. Good luck!

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I am an ortho nurse tech. I do lots of admission assessments, ongoing (shift) assessments, a lot of teaching pts how to get out of bed, use their new orthopedic equipment such as crutches, walkers, CPMs, coolaids, braces, immobilizers, etc. I also help them get out of bed and get them moving which as the above poster said can be quite time consuming! Our pts tend to need a lot of striaght caths due to the surgery meds and epidurals.

When I am not helping them with the above I help do all of the PCT (patient care tech) jobs.

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Specializes in Developmental Disabilites,.

snowstar are you in the US? This is the first time I have heard of a tech doing assesments.

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Flo, are you the kind of nurse that live all the job to de CNA, so what do you do, a nurse that only see the patient on medication time?

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I am an ortho nurse tech. I do lots of admission assessments, ongoing (shift) assessments, a lot of teaching pts how to get out of bed, use their new orthopedic equipment such as crutches, walkers, CPMs, coolaids, braces, immobilizers, etc. I also help them get out of bed and get them moving which as the above poster said can be quite time consuming! Our pts tend to need a lot of striaght caths due to the surgery meds and epidurals.

When I am not helping them with the above I help do all of the PCT (patient care tech) jobs.

Thank You So much this is very helpful! I'm so nervous because although I've done a year of clinicals I still don't feel prepared to perform some of the skills I have learned. I'm sure I will have plenty of on the job training though.

Thank you!! :yeah:

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Hi. I'm an ortho nurse. Our techs do the basic CNA stuff plus they are specially trained to deal with ortho and spine pts. They know the different precautions, how to move these pts and how to set up the equiment we use. Ortho pts can be very time consuming because they move slow. Good luck!

Thank you!! I think I will enjoy this alot. I just hope they will refresh me on some of the skills I learned during my 1st year of nursing school.

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Specializes in Developmental Disabilites,.
Flo, are you the kind of nurse that live all the job to de CNA, so what do you do, a nurse that only see the patient on medication time?

Nope. I do all the stuff that the ortho techs do plus my nursing responsiblities. Ortho techs, CNA, O/t, P/t and RNs all work as a team on my unit. You have to, ortho pts are time consuming and are hard to move at times. However there are days and times when I have a sicker pt that needs my RN skills set, so on those days yes the aides work a bit harder with the non-critical pts. It is about providing the best possible care to the patients and not playing the blame game with the other staff.

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Specializes in Developmental Disabilites,.
Thank you!! I think I will enjoy this alot. I just hope they will refresh me on some of the skills I learned during my 1st year of nursing school.

They will. Most hospitals have a check list that you have to go through to ensure that you are competent. You should also have a few shifts on orientation inwhich you work with another tech. Good Luck!

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I worked as a tech for a year on an Ortho floor when I was in nursing school. And I am now a RN on the same floor. I absolutely love it. But, as a tech, I did a ton of vital signs (esp. for the post-op's), emptied hemovacs/JPs/foleys (if they were post-ops), helped walk patients to the bathroom/whatever else they needed, filled EBI's and ice packs, did accuchecks (if needed), etc. My unit is very team oriented because a lot of the patients I work with are a 2 person assist at the beginning. So, most of the time would be spent helping the other nurses/techs getting patients out of bed.

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snowstar are you in the US? This is the first time I have heard of a tech doing assesments.

I think the problem here is wording of titles. I am a Nursing Student. In this area, "Nurse Techs" are nursing students only. I can do all of those things, but then a Licensed RN has to check them over to make it official. Nurse Tech is not a permenant position, just a bonus positions for those of us students lucky enough to get the experience while in school. This is different than CNA, PCT, PCA etc.

In local hospitals (detroit) they are Nurse Techs, Student Nurse Associates, Nurse Externs, etc. You must be in good standing in an accredited nursing school, and have passes two clinicals.

We do have an Ortho Tech (not Ortho Nurse Tech) who manages our orthopedic equipment and helps pts with it but that's it.

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