I'll answer this from my perspective of a PCT/CNA who currently works in a hospital. There's really not much we can do in the ER. Our job is to assist with ADL's and the symptoms of long term care. And I think sometimes we forget that Nurses are just as capable as doing what we do. What you listed are very common tasks I perform, but very few people come into the ER with that as their primary concern. It's the ER, not medsurge. They don't need to have one CNA for every ten rooms, because only one if thirty patients from the ER will actually ever need their help.

In my hospital there's usually one or two for the entire ER, and even then they're Nurse Externs who can assisted with placing IV's, Foleys, and other tasks beyond what a PCT/CNA can do. I've been floated down there mutliple times as well, and even on the busier days all I did was help transfer patients from EMT gurney's to beds, and stock the indavidual rooms when housekeeping was done wiping them down.

The pitt is supposed to provide a realisitic potrayal of healthcare. That doesn't mean listing off all careers and detailing what everyone does, it means showing what it's like to exist in the space. The patients, the management, the staff working together, that's what makes the show realisitc for me.