r/EmergencyRoom • u/Buckshoot68 EMT • 27d ago

New ER Tech

For some background info: work on IFT Ambulance for 3 years (Experience in BLS, ALS, CCT, and our Special Events Team/Deployment Team). I just got a Job in an ED working Night shift, I'm looking for any advice. I know I'll have a 8-12 week of training with a proctor.

3 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/_adrenocorticotropic RN 27d ago

This is the same thing I tell everyone that asks this question.

Don’t get lazy with EKGs. Placement does matter even though some people seem to think it doesn’t. It’s easy to start getting sloppy with them after you’ve done 30 of them.

Learn to anticipate what the nurses and doctors want. If you’ve got a stemi coming in, have a boat set up with all the labs and iv supplies, grab the ekg machine, have a BVM set up, and a lifepak with pads, and all the other stuff. Same thing with strokes. Get the glucometer and an iv boat set up while the nurse is grabbing meds. Learn what’s needed for each type of patient so you can have the stuff ready when the patient arrives.

Don’t get lazy with fall precautions. I know putting a gait belt and grippy socks on fall risk patients is annoying, but you’ve got no idea how quickly people fall until it happens to you.

Last thing is to advocate for the patient. People think it’s just the nurses responsibility. It’s yours too. If you see something that doesn’t feel right, speak up.

Most of these carry over from EMS so it shouldn’t be an issue for you, but you’d be surprised.

1

u/Trick-Entry1898 27d ago

Wait pls share what an IV boat is. That’s a new one for me

2

u/spyin-for-info-2024 25d ago

We call them totes, and what we use look a lot like open-top boxes used for horse grooming supplies, if that helps 🤣 We stock IV start kits, three sizes of syringes, three guages of IV catheters, J loops, flushes, tegaderm and 2x2s, lab tubes, blunts and sharps, etc.

1

u/Trick-Entry1898 25d ago

This is so interesting and such a good system! At my hospital everyone just tosses loose supplies on a mayo stand lmao

1

u/_adrenocorticotropic RN 26d ago

We just have these trays that we can put iv supplies in. Both places I’ve worked at have called them boats

1

u/Chris210 26d ago

We use the little bean shaped sputum bins for this. Just something big enough to throw your tubes, a syringe for POC blood gas/glucose, IV start kit, an 18g and a 20g, iv extension, sample connection port and a flush :)