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One Year In

October 16, 2023 2:05 pm

Officially tomorrow, the 17th, will mark one year as an ED Tech for me. Unofficially, that’s not quite accurate. The first week was spent in a lecture hall on the first day, and then 3 of the next 4 days in a classroom learning some basic skills, including some I’ve honestly never used in the ED. The one skill I learned that I have used multiple times since, on Friday a year ago, was CPR.

Since then I’ve marked some milestones, such as 100 hours in, 500 hours in, a big one, getting my Red Badge so I’m allowed to be a lead tech on traumas, and of course 1000 hours, which was important, since that was the minimum required to apply to several of my top choice schools. I’ve at times felt like between my IT job, school, and this I’ve been running as fast as I can. Last week was such an example, over 56 hours in the ED as well as school and other work.

But, that 56 hours allowed me to hit another landmark. I’ve mentioned in the past that technically my job in the ED is only part time. I’m a .6 FTE, i.e. I’m scheduled to work 24 hours a week. That means in a year, I should 1248 hours. A full time job is typically 2080 hours in a year. I’m proud (and tired) to say, I hit the 2080 mark sometime mid-shift on Saturday night. I’ve picked up the extra hours for a number of reasons, but among them, I really am enjoying what I do and really am dedicated to showing the schools I’m applying to that I’m serious about my efforts. That said, I’m not averse to taking a bit of time off in the future. We’ll see. I have several more goals to hit, but this was one I didn’t really expect expect to hit until a few weeks ago when I did the math and realize it was possible.

I should note too that in theory for the first 7 weeks I couldn’t pick up any overtime.

In this year I’ve done and seen so much. I’ve done:

• EKGs – more than I count, one shift I counted at least a dozen and that wasn’t all that atypical, so I’ve probably easily done several hundred by now
• Traumas – these have ranged from the guy that came in with what was really not much worse than a nick to the neck (but at the time since the depth was unknown it was called in as a trauma) to stuff that I won’t describe or get into.
• Sits – these can range from easy to difficult to even violent. I did get a black and blue from one psych patient that forcibly grabbed my arm.
• Covid Swabs – again, more than I can count and while over the summer it became rare to do them, the number is ticking up again.
• Intubations – I’ve written about this. It’s an amazing thing to see and I’m still in awe of the whole process
• Deaths – yes, it’s a sad part of my job. I’ve seen those who have died peacefully and those who have died despite our best efforts. There’s a lot more I mean to write on this subject at some time. But the reality is, if you make it through our doors, you’re probably going to make it.
• Raced stretchers to the OR – while a very rare thing, occasionally we have to get a patient to the OR as quickly as possible. We had one such event several weeks ago where the assistant nurse manager and I had to move one such patient. She was so busy doing a manual pulse check and then blood pressure on the patient as I was pushing the stretcher I had to warn her more than once when there was an obstacle in the way less she get squeezed between it and the stretcher.
• Responded to Stroke Pages – among my duties here, besides gathering vitals, is to sit with the patient and nurse while they perform the CT and then getting the patient to their room and getting an EKG. Fortunately, most of the stroke pages turn out to be false alarms, but not always, and even then, if we get them in time, there’s a lot that can be done. As an aside, if you think someone is having a stroke, get help as fast as you can. Time matters.
• CRP – I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve had to do compressions. I’ve also lost track of how many times I’ve gotten ROSC (return of spontaneous circulation). I did get one just a week or two ago as a matter of fact. Honestly, it’s pretty much the drugs and other efforts, I’m just circulating the blood until they can take effect, but it’s still a great feeling when it happens.
• Emptied Hampers – yeah, part of the job. I do it pretty much every shift.
• Restocked IV and linen carts – not fancy, but a necessary part of the job. It sucks to be in the middle of care for a critical patient and have a nurse ask for something, say IV tubing and realizing the cabinet in the room doesn’t have any!
• Procedures – I’ve helped with a number, including some spinal taps, some suturing and more. Now to be clear, helping is pretty much limited to “hold the patient or this equipment…” but it’s still great to be in the room.
• Made some great friends – I really love working with the folks I work with.
• Had some fun along the way – yes, we’ve had our fun moments.
• And so much more – Honestly, the stuff us techs do is pretty diverse and I’ll be honest, I probably couldn’t list it all (and if I did, I’d bore you more than I already have.)

So, what’s next?

Good question. Right now I’m still waiting to hear from a number of the PA schools I’ve applied to. If I get into any of the ones with a January start date and I decide to attend them, then I’ll probably break the 2300 hour barrier. One I’m interested in has a start date of August of next year, so that would mean breaking the 3000 hour barrier most likely. If I end up going into a second round of applications, I suspect I’ll have 4000 hours of Tech experience under my belt by then.

But until then, I’ll keep plugging.

As always: none of my statements here are endorsed by or reflect the views of my employer, Albany Medical Health Systems.

Posted by Greg Moore

Categories: Physician Assistant

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