POLL: How much tech help do you have in your ICU?

[bluesky, BSN, RN]

By tech I mean patient care technicitians who give baths, do blood sugars, etc.

[zambezi, BSN, RN]

We have one cna on days...she helps with baths, restocking the unit, checks the crash carts, watching the monitors (she is also a MT), answering phones, unit secretary stuff, etc... she is only on the say shift (and I don't know if she stays for all of it, for that matter).

We have a hospital wide lift team too, but only from 7:00-22:00. After that it is all us. However, I have heard rumor that they may keep a couple lift techs on during the night shift too...wouldn't that be nice...

[Mayflye]

I work nights. We have lift team (yay, I love them) until 10:30 pm. If we have a CNA, they are very poorly trained and/or unwilling to do anything. We do it ourselves, or beg for help from the other nurses w/ lifting and turning. God forbid you've got a patient w/ active gi bleed or c-dif.

[bellehill, RN]

Our techs are wonderful, unfortunately they usually have between 12-18 patients to help with. Because of the stress a lot are leaving and soon we won't have any. The techs help with baths, vitals, EKGs, run to the lab, put in orders, and can draw blood from the A.lines (but we do it usually). A night without a tech is a bad, bad night.

[PennyLane, RN]

I was an ICU tech in school. There were two of us, 24 hours a day, for 28 patients. Of course, some techs were better than others. Unfortunately the RNs ended up doing a lot of the work themselves, other than stocking. One of the reasons I left after I graduated.

[PJMommy]

They routinely have 2-3 techs on day shift. On nights, we are lucky if we get one. It's a continued source of frustration for night nurses who have all the vented pt baths to do as well as oodles of q 1 or q 2 hour accuchecks.

[Bekahlynn]

The unit that I work on now as a student/tech, and will be working on when I graduate in three weeks, has 11 beds. There are two techs from 07-1500, one from 1500-1900, and one from 1900-07.

[Gator,SN]

We have around the clock tech help and they are wonderful. Most of them know what we need and stay one step ahead of us all day. They know what time to get glucochecks, look at the schedule as to what time pts are expected to have tests: ekgs, echos etc.. and have them ready, they give baths, shave, lather them with lostion, they get people up in the chair, set them up for meals or feed them, get VS and TELL us when something is abnormal or changing, weigh the pt, they can start or d/c foleys, d/c IV's, help with transfers or new admits, set pts up on tele, turn and reposition and a whole bunch of other things throughout the day. Yes, we are spoiled, but so is the pt. As the nurse, I do all these things too, but it is nice to have time to actually talk to the pt and educate them and work with the family. The techs allow us to do that. They also have learning mods every month and in-services that are specific to the unit.

[erinnRN]

I now work in a place with none, which I love. Simply because I have worked in ICU's with 1 and even 2, and i found them...well to put it nicely...well i can't put it nicely. even if you found a quality tech, who would actually do your blood sugars and baths, they were typically too busy to get to everyones. for the most part, the techs that i've come across didn't do a whole lot anyway. so it's better not to have any false hope and just do it yourself. beats waiting for someone else to do it and get your hourly blood sugar and 45 min late!!! and before i get flamed, i DO KNOW there are great techs out there who are invaluble to nurses...i just haven't come across enough of them.

[KimberRN1]

MICU here.....Sometimes if we're lucky we have a pt care person....they help with the baths but can't usually do it alone as the pts are on a lot of gtts, have multiple lines, and are on the vent, so we're helping..........If we don't have pt care you grab another RN and you help each other with baths...cleaning up messes, or whatever else.....If we don't have pt care our monitor techs are suppose to restock our rooms...but if they're busy you do it yourself.....This time of year we usually get a nurse extern who helps out in the summer....

the ICU is why by back is junked....lol.....

[ladybug5982RN]

i work night shift,7pm to 7am,the majority of the time we do not have a tech:crying2: ,day shift usually has 2-3 techs plus a fulltime secretary.you would think they could do all of the bathes but they don't.usually i get two patients who neither have had a bath. sometimes we get a tech on 7pm till 11 but he also works full time at another job during the day and is frankly worthless.we do all of our baths,accu checks,turning,watching our monitors,stocking,trash and everything else.

lately out patients have gotten alot bigger and some nights i have even had three very unstable patients due to short staff.that lift team sounds great! i wish we had something like that??

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

we have techs -- and sometimes they help. most of the time, however, they're chatting with friends on their cellphones, shopping on the internet, socializing with their friends who work in housekeeping. when they work, they do exactly what they want to do -- no more, and no less. (if, for example, i change an art line dressing which is something they enjoy doing, they sulk for the rest of the shift.) i'm told "that's the culture here, you just have to het used to it."