ER Tech vs EMT-B

[EMSBabe18]

I just got my basic cert and have applied for jobs in both the ER and local ambulance companies. What experiences have you all had? Pros/cons to each environment?

 

[truetiger]

Each hospital will be different. in most cases you'll be the nurses b!tch. Run here, get that, take so and so there. Some hospitals will allow you to do phlebotomy. Most will add EKG tech to your list of duties. I worked at a level 2 trauma center. Did more that my fair share of EKG's, blood draws, and vitals. It was great work experience in that I got tons of patient contact and used this to my advantage. The tech is usually the first person a patient will see once they make it back to the room. Use this opportunity to brush up on your interview/assessment/people skills. It'll also be a great opportunity to get a lot of codes/traumas/SHTF situations under your belt.

 

[Iceman26]

Each hospital will be different. in most cases you'll be the nurses b!tch. Run here, get that, take so and so there. Some hospitals will allow you to do phlebotomy. Most will add EKG tech to your list of duties. I worked at a level 2 trauma center. Did more that my fair share of EKG's, blood draws, and vitals. It was great work experience in that I got tons of patient contact and used this to my advantage. The tech is usually the first person a patient will see once they make it back to the room. Use this opportunity to brush up on your interview/assessment/people skills. It'll also be a great opportunity to get a lot of codes/traumas/SHTF situations under your belt.

This pretty much nails it. As they said, it really, really depends on the hospital. It can be a great experience or a miserable one, and even in a good hospital setting individual nurses, docs, etc can be tough to work with but you're gonna deal with that at any job.

I worked for both an ambo and an ER while going through paramedic school and I actually thought my ER experience was more beneficial, particularly skill-wise. I was drawing blood all the time so transitioning to IV's was easy. I was doing EKG's all the time so I had seen so many that while I couldn't interpret them I knew what a bad one looked like and what it should look like if it was normal, so I had a bit of a foundation to build on. Plus, once I was learning how to interpret them in school I got a TON of practice there in the ER doing it. I found that to be huge. And as stated, you have unlimited patient contact. You learn what a truly sick person looks and sounds like and you learn and hear more about the disease processes and what the staff does with the patient after you drop them off. Gives you a better perspective of things to do in the field to not only cover your own bases with hospital staff but to actually help them out and make them remember you and trust you. Plus you just learn how to talk to patients in various states and conditions and you learn how to properly deal with them and all the possibilities of personalities, attitudes, etc, you're going to face your whole career.

Plus, like Tiger said, great opportunity to get good with your assessment/interview skills. The nurses and docs are still going to come in and do their assessments but it's still good practice. In time, the nurses and docs may grow to trust you enough to give them your take about an assessment or if a patient gets brought back from triage and they're in really bad shape, they're going to trust you if you come out to the station and tell that room's nurse "hey, you really wanna get in there and check them out, they're really struggling to breath".

All in all, it can be a great experience, plus the hospitals will pay you better as a tech than you'll get paid as an EMT-B in the field. Ideally, working both is the best. As good as the hospital was, you do tend to get a lot of biatch work and can get run ragged. Plus, I'm just not a hospital/nurse type, I loved being in the field, especially once I started doing my ride-time in medic school, so I started to burn out on it a little bit but that was also because in the end I was a medic in the field but still working as a tech in the ER, so I wasn't allowed to use my skills a whole lot (on the record, at least ^_^) But it's definitely a solid, solid job, you'll make decent money, and it'll make you a better healthcare provider.

 

[UNTMatt]

Depending on what you want out of your future, hospitals usually have better tuition/education reimbursement packages as well. At least where I live, that's the case.

 

[jjesusfreak01]

An ER Tech is a CNA position, even if they staff it with EMTs. You work entirely under nurses or doctor's orders, and will be required to do all the dirty work of the ER. It may (if your hospital allows) give you experience in doing IVs/blood draws, splinting, patient moves, EKGs, and many other skills used in the EMS field.

The one exception to working under doctors or nurses orders is if you are on a trauma team, in which case you may get to work under standing orders, starting an IV or doing bleeding control on patients. Its different from EMS, but should be less stressful and will give you some experience that can be applied to the EMS field.

 

[JPINFV]

The one exception to working under doctors or nurses orders is if you are on a trauma team, in which case you may get to work under standing orders, starting an IV or doing bleeding control on patients. Its different from EMS, but should be less stressful and will give you some experience that can be applied to the EMS field.

Just wanted to point out that standing orders is a type of physician's orders.