Inexperienced and starting ER tech job: Help me suck please!

[eodginger]

I just picked up a job with a level 1 trauma center as an ER tech. My background is simply EMT school and military. I was hired by a board of individuals who work in the ER (not some HR individual), so they knew I was inexperienced and they had some work to do.
The interview was pretty casual, quick, and laid back (they even made a couple jabs at my only experience being at tropical smoothie), so I'm positive they expect me to need training.

With this being said, I don't want to walk into my first day and having to be completely dependent upon the other techs and nurses for every small task like a baby in the womb.
The job description says a couple things like "splinting and wound care," so I know to look over orthoglass splints and such, but are there any specifics I should go over like EKG placement, patient hygiene such as bathing, since I have no clue how to do that.

I want to place as little of a burden on the techs and nurses as I can, while still learning as much as possible.

Any input would be much appreciated.

 

[MonkeyArrow]

I just picked up a job with a level 1 trauma center as an ER tech. My background is simply EMT school and military. I was hired by a board of individuals who work in the ER (not some HR individual), so they knew I was inexperienced and they had some work to do.
The interview was pretty casual, quick, and laid back (they even made a couple jabs at my only experience being at tropical smoothie), so I'm positive they expect me to need training.

With this being said, I don't want to walk into my first day and having to be completely dependent upon the other techs and nurses for every small task like a baby in the womb.
The job description says a couple things like "splinting and wound care," so I know to look over orthoglass splints and such, but are there any specifics I should go over like EKG placement, patient hygiene such as bathing, since I have no clue how to do that.

I want to place as little of a burden on the techs and nurses as I can, while still learning as much as possible.

Any input would be much appreciated.

Job will probably entail splinting, EKG placement, lab draws (if you're allowed to by state law/policy, should be trained if they want you to do). I wouldn't be too worried about bathing patients since they generally aren't in the ED long enough to need a bath.

12 lead placement is really simple. There is usually a diagram on the machine, and you can just google an image of propped placement and have it down. Splinting will take a bit more work. On your first day, just try to follow around other techs when they splint, and you'll get the hang of it once you do a few. Orthoglass/OCL splinting is probably the hardest thing you will have to do. Putting on preformed splints is really common sense, and if you just take it out of the box and read the directions (if needed) and play with it a bit before you go into the room, you'll be fine.

 

[OnceAnEMT]

All PCTs and ER Techs at the hospital system I'm in go through 2 weeks of training. Week 1 is system and facility orientation, which everyone from construction contractors to physicians participates in. Week 2 is job-specific, and for Techs that meant "PCT Boot Camp". Fortunately, being an EMT only required that I attend Day 1 and 2, and the rest of skill-specific with the ED education coordinator (so I missed the pleasure of learning bathing techniques). In those 5ish days of hands-on training I was taught and signed off on restraint technique, coughing for quads, NG tube removal (not placement), foley cath placement and removal, deescalation, iSTAT and Nova glucometer (all POC tools), and maybe one or two more things. For the next 3 months I was on a probation period in which I had 20+ skillsheets to have signed off which were all across the board (inventory knowledge, splinting, 12 lead, wound care, foley (again), and much more).

Basically - I was taught on the job by my preceptor for the 1st month, then on-the-fly for the next 2 months. By that point all staff are expected to be truly self-sufficient. But of course even after that questions arise, and the learning continues!

Don't stress it. Maybe go over EKG concepts, maybe look into splinting techniques... but I would expect that they teach you all of the skills you'll need to apply.