patient care tech duties in dialysis?

[IndyGal]

I was browsing some job postings today and came across an ad for a patient care technician for a dialysis clinic. The ad was pretty vague about the duties of the job, other than they are willing to train... can you give me an idea of what a tech's responsibilities would involve? I'm in the process of applying to BSN programs (and completing prereqs) and thought this might be a good way to get some patient care experience, since my work experience so far has been in non-medical fields. Or is this really more of a front desk/check-in kind of position?

[AmyLiz]

I am a dialysis tech. My job is similar to what the dialysis nurses do, but it's limited in certain aspects (like giving meds, doing care plans, assessments, etc).

Basically, I prep the pt for treatment...get his/her vitals, weight, etc...ask if they're having any SOB, chest pain, Nausea/vomiting/diarrhea...check for edema...confirm their ID (for their reused dialyzer). Then I initiate the treatment...skin prep, insertion of needles (our unit has lidocaine that I can administer to a pt if they request it) or catheter prep...hooking up to the machine & starting the treatment. As a tech, I am only permitted to administer heparin (into the machine...it doses it throughout the tx), lidocaine, O2, and normal saline. The nurses administer other meds (such as epogen, venofer, etc). Throughout the treatment, I write down their vitals qh or prn, watch for s/s of hypotension/hypertension, etc. After the tx is over, I recirc the pts blood back to them with normal saline & dc the tx (pull needles, etc.

It's interesting and really gives you good experience. I had no medical experience when I got this job & it helped me out with nursing school a lot. (I've only got about a year or so left in nursing school)

AmyLiz, OCDT, CHT