[lady_jezebel]

Strange, I was just reading last night about how ketamine can be used to induce near-death experiences. It triggers something in the brain. Supposedly it alone does not sedate the patient -- it needs to be administered with a sedative to do that. But what will just the administration of ketamine do to the pt?? It will control the pain, but will it additionally cause hallucinations? I feel sorry not just for the nurse, but also the patient.

For anyone who is interested about ketamine and nde's:
http://leda.lycaeum.org/?ID=9260

Excerpt:
Ketamine is a short-acting, hallucinogenic, 'dissociative' anaesthetic. The anaesthesia is the result of the patient being so 'dissociated' and 'removed from their body' that it is possible to carry out surgical procedures. This is wholly different from the 'unconsciousness' produced by conventional anesthetics, although ketamine is also an excellent analgesic (pain killer) by a different route (i.e. not due to dissociation). Ketamine is related to phencyclidine (PCP). Both drugs are arylcyclohexylamines - they are not opioids and are not related to LSD. In contrast to PCP, ketamine is relatively safe, is much shorter acting, is an uncontrolled drug in most countries, and remains in use as an anaesthetic for children in industrialised countries and all ages in the third world as it is cheap and easy to use (White et al., 1982). Anaesthetists prevent patients from having NDE's ('emergence phenomena') by the co-administration of sedatives which produce 'true' unconsciousness rather than dissociation (Reich and Silvay, 1989.)

[suzanne4]

Appararently it is a standard for some private doctors at one of the biggest teaching facilities here. In Thailand, most deliveries are done my midwives, with the doctors only doing complicated cases, or private pay patients.
But the thing that I find the most odd is that this hospital has a well respected anesthesia MDA program, and how is their anesthesia dept letting them get away with it? The doctors (ob/gyn) that are ordering it are using it for forceps deliveries. I don't know anyhting about the nurses giving it, other than they are not anesthetists.............
My nurses haven't been involved with this since two of them are on post partum, not actually in the Delivery Room.