Top 12 Emergency Department Technician Skills to Put on Your Resume

In the fast-paced and high-pressure environment of an emergency department, technicians anchor the flow of care. The right skills on your resume do more than fill space. They signal poise under pressure, quick hands, sharp judgment, and a steady voice when things tilt sideways.

Emergency Department Technician Skills

1. CPR Certified
2. EKG Interpretation
3. Phlebotomy
4. IV Insertion
5. Triage Assessment
6. Patient Monitoring
7. Wound Care
8. Splinting Techniques
9. Medical Terminology
10. HIPAA Compliance
11. BLS (Basic Life Support)
12. ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support)

1. CPR Certified

CPR Certified indicates you’ve been trained and assessed as competent in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. When breathing or circulation stops, you don’t freeze—you act with clear, practiced steps to buy time and save lives.

Why It's Important

Immediate, high-quality CPR doubles or triples survival in cardiac arrest. In the ED, seconds slip fast. Certification assures your technique meets current standards when the room suddenly narrows to a chest, a clock, and a team.

How to Improve CPR Certified Skills

Keep the skills tight and fresh. Practice often, think in algorithms, and chase feedback.

1. Refresh the science: Review current resuscitation updates at regular intervals; guidelines evolve.
2. Train with manikins that give feedback: Depth, rate, recoil—real-time metrics sharpen muscle memory.
3. Drill scenarios: Practice single-rescuer and team-based cases, including AED use and airway adjuncts.
4. Combine with BLS/ACLS/PALS refreshers: Layered learning sticks better and mirrors real practice.
5. Debrief after real events: What went well? What dragged? Adjust immediately.

Consistency builds confidence. Confidence drives speed. Speed matters.

How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume

2. EKG Interpretation

EKG interpretation means reading the heart’s electrical story—rate, rhythm, intervals, axis, ischemia, injury, and more. In the ED, catching the dangerous patterns quickly is the ballgame.

Why It's Important

Early recognition of STEMI, lethal arrhythmias, electrolyte shifts, or conduction blocks fast-tracks the right treatment. Minutes shaved can mean myocardium saved.

How to Improve EKG Interpretation Skills

1. Nail the normal first: When you know normal cold, abnormal pops off the page.
2. Use a fixed approach: Rate → rhythm → axis → intervals → morphology → ischemia/injury → differentials.
3. Practice in bursts: Timed strip drills build speed under pressure.
4. Study patterns: Learn hallmark looks—WPW, Brugada, Wellens, hyperkalemia, pericarditis.
5. Compare with clinical context: EKGs don’t live alone; symptoms and vitals refine calls.
6. Seek feedback and mentorship: Rapid review with seasoned readers levels you up faster.

How to Display EKG Interpretation Skills on Your Resume

3. Phlebotomy

Phlebotomy is drawing blood safely, quickly, and cleanly for tests, transfusions, or procedures. Calm hands. Clear labels. Zero hemolysis if you can help it.

Why It's Important

ED decisions often hinge on labs. Fast, accurate draws prevent repeat sticks, speed diagnostics, and keep care moving.

How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills

1. Refine technique: Practice vein selection, angle, and anchoring on task trainers and supervised shifts.
2. Follow the order of draw: Reduce contamination and error; adhere to current CLSI standards.
3. Master patient communication: Set expectations, reduce anxiety, and position for success.
4. Know your equipment: Butterfly vs. straight needle, gauge selection, tubes, and additives.
5. Prioritize safety: Standard precautions, sharps handling, and proper disposal every time.
6. Audit your outcomes: Track redraws and hemolysis. Fix the patterns that cause them.

How to Display Phlebotomy Skills on Your Resume

4. IV Insertion

Placing a peripheral IV gives direct access for fluids, meds, and contrast. It’s a routine task that turns critical in a blink.

Why It's Important

Rapid access means rapid therapy—shock, sepsis, analgesia, antiarrhythmics, you name it. When the patient is crashing, access is lifeline.

How to Improve IV Insertion Skills

1. Prepare smart: Right catheter, securement device, flushes, tape, and dressings set up within reach.
2. Choose the site well: Start distal, work proximal; pick straight, compressible veins; avoid flexion points when possible.
3. Use optimal skin prep: Alcohol is common; chlorhexidine-alcohol is preferred when available unless contraindicated.
4. Dial in technique: Bevel up, low angle, stabilize the vein, advance smoothly; confirm flash, then thread.
5. Secure and assess: Stabilize with appropriate dressings; confirm patency and patient comfort.
6. Adopt ultrasound for difficult access: Improve first-pass success on challenging veins.
7. Practice and debrief: Review misses, infiltration causes, and dislodgement trends. Adjust.

Resources to know (no links): CDC guidance on preventing catheter-related infections, Infusion Nurses Society Standards of Practice, and your facility’s policies and simulation labs.

How to Display IV Insertion Skills on Your Resume

5. Triage Assessment

Triage sorts the sick from the sickest. Quick assessment, risk flags, and prioritization so the right patient hits the right bed at the right time.

Why It's Important

Resources aren’t infinite. Triage ensures time-critical problems—airway compromise, stroke, STEMI, sepsis—don’t wait in the shadows.

How to Improve Triage Assessment Skills

1. Use a standard tool: Learn the Emergency Severity Index (ESI) levels 1–5 and apply them consistently.
2. Spot the red flags fast: Altered mental status, work of breathing, perfusion deficits, severe pain, abnormal vitals.
3. Hone focused histories: Chief complaint, onset, associated symptoms, meds, allergies, pertinent past history—tight and targeted.
4. Strengthen communication: Clear handoffs, closed-loop updates, and concise documentation.
5. Simulate and review cases: Run mock triage scenarios; compare decisions to standards and outcomes.
6. Reflect and recalibrate: Seek feedback from nurses and providers; adjust thresholds as you learn.

How to Display Triage Assessment Skills on Your Resume

6. Patient Monitoring

Monitoring means tracking vitals and trends—heart rate, rhythm, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, temperature, pain, mental status. It’s vigilance with purpose.

Why It's Important

Patients turn quickly. Subtle changes often whisper before they shout. Good monitoring catches drift early and prompts timely interventions.

How to Improve Patient Monitoring Skills

1. Set smart alarms: Meaningful limits that cut alarm fatigue but protect patients.
2. Trend, don’t just snapshot: Document direction and rate of change; context matters more than a single number.
3. Use early warning scores: NEWS2 or similar tools help quantify risk and trigger escalation.
4. Verify the tech: Proper probe placement, cuff sizing, calibration checks, and artifact recognition.
5. Communicate promptly: Escalate deteriorations early; confirm orders and follow through fast.
6. Follow protocols: Apply sepsis screens, chest pain pathways, stroke alerts, and sedation monitoring standards.

How to Display Patient Monitoring Skills on Your Resume

7. Wound Care

Wound care covers assessment, cleaning, hemostasis, dressing, and follow-up. Different wounds demand different plans; clean technique and smart product choices speed healing and curb infection.

Why It's Important

Proper early care prevents complications, reduces pain, improves cosmetic outcomes, and lowers return visits. Get the fundamentals right, and the wound behaves.

How to Improve Wound Care Skills

1. Assess completely: Type, depth, contamination, neurovascular status, tetanus status, and need for imaging or closure.
2. Irrigate well: Normal saline, adequate pressure, and generous volume (often 50–100 mL per cm of wound).
3. Choose the right dressing: Match exudate level and location; maintain a moist healing environment without maceration.
4. Mind infection control: Recognize early signs of infection; follow local protocols for antibiotics and re-evaluation.
5. Protect and secure: Pad high-friction areas, offload pressure when possible, and anchor dressings that won’t fail early.
6. Educate: Clear home care instructions and return precautions; schedule appropriate follow-up.

How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume

8. Splinting Techniques

Splinting immobilizes injured bones and soft tissues to reduce pain, prevent further harm, and allow safe transport. The right device, well-padded and correctly positioned, makes a world of difference.

Why It's Important

Stability first. Good splinting protects neurovascular status, curbs swelling, and buys time until definitive care.

How to Improve Splinting Techniques Skills

1. Assess before and after: Document pulses, motor, and sensation prior to application and once secured.
2. Immobilize properly: Joint above and below, with generous padding over bony prominences.
3. Fit the injury: Choose rigid, soft, or traction splints based on location and pattern.
4. Position of function: Hands in safe position, knees slightly flexed when indicated, ankles neutral.
5. Recheck often: Swelling happens; loosen and adjust if circulation or comfort changes.
6. Practice on models: Simulation and repetition refine speed and technique.

How to Display Splinting Techniques Skills on Your Resume

9. Medical Terminology

Medical terminology is the shared language of care. It keeps notes precise, orders clean, and handoffs crisp.

Why It's Important

Clarity under pressure prevents errors. Terminology fluency speeds documentation and reduces miscommunication when the room gets loud.

How to Improve Medical Terminology Skills

1. Drill vocabulary: Flashcards, spaced repetition, and quick daily reviews.
2. Read clinical material: ED notes, protocols, and journal abstracts—context cements meaning.
3. Use mnemonics: Short, memorable cues for prefixes, suffixes, and roots.
4. Practice aloud: Case presentations and peer quizzes build recall.
5. Leverage apps and short courses: Bite-sized lessons fit between shifts and stick.

How to Display Medical Terminology Skills on Your Resume

10. HIPAA Compliance

HIPAA compliance safeguards patient privacy and secures health information. In the ED, it means constant awareness despite the chaos.

Why It's Important

Trust depends on confidentiality. So does legal and ethical practice. Protecting data is as essential as protecting patients.

How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills

1. Train routinely: Know the rules, updates, and your department’s specific workflows.
2. Minimum necessary: Share only what’s needed, with only those who need it.
3. Secure communication: Approved channels only; no hallway handoffs within earshot of others.
4. Control access: Unique logins, locked screens, badge-secured areas, and clean workspaces.
5. Report promptly: Near misses and breaches get escalated immediately.

How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume

11. BLS (Basic Life Support)

BLS focuses on airway, breathing, and circulation with CPR and AED use. It’s the foundation you stand on when everything else falls away.

Why It's Important

High-quality BLS is the single most impactful step in cardiac arrest care before advanced interventions arrive.

How to Improve BLS (Basic Life Support) Skills

1. Perfect compressions: 100–120/min, 2–2.4 inches deep, full recoil, minimal pauses.
2. Rotate rescuers: Switch every 2 minutes to maintain quality.
3. Bag-mask with intention: Proper seal, low tidal volumes, avoid hyperventilation; use capnography if available.
4. Deploy the AED fast: Prompt rhythm analysis and shocks when indicated.
5. Work as a team: Clear roles, closed-loop communication, and relentless focus on compressions.
6. Refresh frequently: Short, regular practice beats infrequent long sessions.

How to Display BLS (Basic Life Support) Skills on Your Resume

12. ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support)

ACLS brings structured algorithms, medications, and teamwork to cardiac and select respiratory emergencies. It’s decisive care under protocol pressure.

Why It's Important

When rhythms turn ugly or perfusion tanks, ACLS organizes the chaos—improving outcomes with timely, coordinated interventions.

How to Improve ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) Skills

1. Know the algorithms cold: Shockable vs. non-shockable, brady/tachy pathways, and post-ROSC care.
2. Run simulations: Practice code leadership and role clarity; refine drug timing and dosing.
3. Use capnography and ultrasound when available: Confirm airways and guide compressions or reversible cause searches.
4. Master closed-loop communication: Orders heard, repeated back, completed, and confirmed.
5. Debrief every event: Metrics, delays, and human factors—fix what slowed you down.

How to Display ACLS (Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support) Skills on Your Resume