KEY POINTS:
Name: Kirin Nahna
Age: 35
Job title: Anaesthetic technician
Working hours: 40 hours/week in shifts
Employer: Southern Cross Hospital Hamilton, other hospitals
Pay: $28,000 to $56,000, rising with experience and responsibility
Qualifications needed: Year 12 or 13 biology, physics or mathematics or equivalent and working towards a Certificate in Anaesthetic Technology (soon to be a diploma)
Career prospects: charge position, other management roles
Describe your job.
We control or help maintain the anaesthetic machine and all the breathing circuits and monitoring equipment. We prepare all the drugs and get everything ready for the anaesthetist.
We're involved with patients who are feeling quite vulnerable at the beginning of their procedure. We assist the anaesthetist with inserting all the intravenous lines pre-operatively, administering the anaesthetic and help inter-operatively - watching the patient and monitoring all the vital signs.
We assist in any emergency and help the anaesthetist wake up the patient and make sure that they transfer safely out of the procedure room. If something goes wrong with a patient physiologically - say they are in a lot of trouble and they are going to die - the anaesthetist and the technician are the people that really kick in and get that person back. The surgeon and the nurses are there to work on them, which is a different area. If someone collapses out in the ward, they'll call for an anaesthetist and a technician to run in and put a tube in and some lines and get the drugs in.
Do you have a typical day?
It depends on where you work. The biggest difference is between public and private hospitals. There are a lot of different types of work and a lot of different hours involved in working in a public hospital - like night shift. We don't work weekends in a private hospital. What you do is dictated by what [surgical] lists you are doing.
Why did you choose the job?
I fell into it. Like everybody else, I never knew that an anaesthetic technician [job] existed. I started working at the Waikato Hospital in the sterile supply unit sterilising all the instruments for theatre. I learnt that a job was coming up, applied for it and got it. I was at the right place at the right time. I was already in the system.
Why is the job important?
People who have procedures done feel quite vulnerable and that their life is in someone else's hands. They need to know that the right people are there so you need to assure them even in the way you talk that you are the right person for the job. You've got to keep putting yourself in the patient's shoes. It's easy in any job for the monotony to make you blase but you really can't [in this job].
What's the best part of the job?
I love the patient contact and helping people. It sounds a cliche but it's real. In the health system you get a really eclectic mix of people - people from all different walks of life. I enjoy the contact with the team. The worst part is the frustrating nature of the health system. I think people who work at the coalface in the health system are overlooked for remuneration.
What are your strengths?
I'm a really good people person. I employ 10 technicians and they are all really experienced. I know they have been through the grind and that occasionally people have to put work before everything else.
I feel now that I can run a department where people put their family and home life first. Because I've got two young kids and a wife I'm quite user friendly in that respect. Because of that I find people give their all for me, give a bit extra. I feel I've got good communication skills and I know the job well. I've been doing it 16 years now but there's always room for improvement. My job also has a lot of administration work now and I need to ensure my clinical skills are kept up to scratch.
What are essential qualities of a good anaesthetic technician?
You've got to be good technically, have great observation and management skills. You've got to have a cool head, sometimes have a calming influence, be diplomatic, democratic and have good communication skills.
What's your job-hunting advice?
Contact your local district health board. They are trying to promote this job more and jobs do come up from time to time. If you are at school, focus on doing the sixth form sciences.
