Starting new as a Tech in need of advice

bvalerio23 · Apr 1, 2015

I've worked in the ED just about a year now and it's the best thing I've done in my persuit of my RN. My hospital is great about teaching and letting me put my classroom skills to work.

I was not an EMT before hand and I don't think it hindered me. My facaility is a 21 bed ED but is 45 minutes from another ED so we have many high acuity patients as well as seeing 140% of our anticipated patient flow. Depending on the facility, some places offer an extensive on-boarding process and preceptorship while others throw you into the deep end. I would suggest keeping communication between you and your nurses as open as possible, being clear about what tasks you are and are not comfortable doing, and keeping an open mind about your job responsiblities. There are a TON of things that are considered "other duties as assigned" that snowball and quickly become standard of care by a tech or PCT. I learned most of my skills on the job, learned what was complete BS that was taught in school vs. the real world.

My biggest suggestion would be to not be afraid to tackle the ED floor. I was hesitant to learn IV starts and blood draws especially after sticking an artery on my first IV start. Do not be intimidated by 'experienced' nurses and remember everyone will be stressed to the max when census is high. Do not take what stressed out nurses say to heart if you make a mistake! Take a breath, try to remedy the situation as best as you can, and move on. There should always be another tech to help you out or a friendly nurse to take a few extra minutes to help clean up a patient or draw blood when you can't find a vein to save your life.

Good luck with the job, I suggest it to any of my friends that are interested in Critical Care nursing.

AhN10 · May 13, 2015

Hey! I've been a ER tech for about 6 years now and I absolutely love it. I was like you..I worked a year as a CNA on a medical floor and just applied to one of the ERs here in San Antonio (which happened to have highest acuity in town) and I had no idea how to do anything. Skill wise I was clueless. But, I will say it's been the best learning experience I could of ever asked for.

I've seen it all.

Make sure you have a good percent and you'll be golden. I'll never forget the first IV I was thrown into basically on my first day. He handed me a 18g and said here you go. There's a huge vein on his forearm. The poor man was drunk out of his mind and unresponsive nonetheless I still didn't want to heart him. Practice makes perfect though. Never give up a chance to start an IV. Same thing goes with drawing blood. Now if you absolutely can't find anything then ask someone to help. Most of the time you'll always find something. I'm pretty sure I can draw blood out of a potato.

If you plan on going to nursing school you'll learn the world. Make sure and ask questions if you want to learn about disease processes. There's almost always someone there that will help in explaining and the next time something happens or a same case comes in you'll be more than prepared in what to do and what orders you know are going to be done.

By the end of everything you'll know protocols like the back on your hand and know most disease processes. What labs mean what and your critical highs and lows.

I applied to nursing school for the fall and I feel like my background as an er tech will be useful!

Just remember to breath when you feel overwhelmed. And it's okay to ask for help!

Medic_5 · May 15, 2015

At the ED I work at, there are regular techs (nursing students in at least second year of clinical, EMTs) and paramedic techs (wider scope then regular techs.) My ED doesn't hire CNAs/LPNs/MAs, but the floors do. I am a paramedic so have always worked worked in EDs, prehospital field, and urgent care. My current job is in an ED as a medic tech and I like it...it can get extremely busy with few breaks, but for the most part I am happy with my job.

I guess it depends on your comfort level and what you personally would like to do regarding EMT cert. I found it fairly easy to slip into the ED responsibilities, while techs without ED/prehospital experience had more difficulty.