Can Nurses Give Stitches?

[swimincatz]

I haven't yet started nursing school so I'm not entirely sure what all a nurse gets to do. I'm curious, can a nurse give stitches? Can you get a "certification" to give them, or is that a doctor's job? Can nurses with advanced degrees give stitches?

thanks!

[Medic09, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

kishinne said:

legality based..its the doctors/surgeon who do stitches...

What law is that? In which state?

The only LEGAL issue I've seen come up is for billing purposes. Medicare had no little box for billing for sutures done by a tech or nurse (as was done by in a large university hospital ER here, UNM, for some years). Hospitals that had non-MDs suturing were therefore billing illegally.

AFAIK, there wasn't any legal barrier to the nurses or techs suturing if trained to do so; but the facility would have to provide such a service for free. That's not likely to happen.

As Gila said, who's got time? I can't even make time to do simple splinting and casting and have to leave it to the techs. Suturing in some cases just isn't possible...

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

Before I was a Nurse I was a Med Assistant to a country doctor. He called me at home one Sunday (I think ) and asked if I and my husband could meet him at the office. I thought I was going to get fired or something.

Well it turned out he'd been chopping wood or something and cut his leg with the axe. He asked ME to put a few stitches to keep it closed. Showed me how and stupid me did. Then he asked my hubby to drive him to the ER about 60 mi away. I guess he trusted my suturing because they just irrigated around them, gave him some antibiotics and steri- stripped between. It healed quite nicely if I recall.

BTW back then he used #60 mercerized cotton thread which we put on curved cutting needles and sterilized. This was a LONG time ago.

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

Never put any in....

I've taken out a lot of staples (and please, PLEASE if you're new, and get an order to "remove half of the staples" it means every other staple, not just the top or bottom half....dehiscing's a bad thing).

The only stitches I take out are the ones that are holding in triple lumen caths -- usually just before I put a person in their bodybag. Occassionally, I get one on a late evening discharge, but usually it's someone who's passed away.