Endoscopy Nurse?

[Esanity, BSN]

I’m thinking about applying for an endoscopy nurse position. I have experience on Med Surg and in Surgery. Can anyone tell me what some of my responsibilities would be? 

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

This is based on my experience with my facility. 

In my facility, the endo team is split into the pre/post team and the procedure team. 

The pre/post team prepares the patient for their procedure and then provides the recovery care after the procedure. Things like IV start, preprocedure assessment, teaching, ensuring the patient maintains their airway and vitals as they recover from sedation/anesthesia, discharging them. 

The procedure team fills two roles: the circulator and the assist role. The circulator is not the one getting hands on with the scopes and various things that go along with it but is responsible for assisting anesthesia, positioning the patient, managing specimens, documenting. The assist role helps the physician complete the procedure- passing up snares/brushes/needles/etc that are used for biopsies and what have you. They also work with the circulator and physician to ensure that specimens are labeled properly and placed in the correct type of fixative. They will do the immediate post-procedure scope precleaning. Depending on what time of day/day of the week, they may be responsible for reprocessing the scope to be used on the next patient if the scope processing team is done for the day or off for the weekend. 

[Esanity, BSN]

12 minutes ago, Rose_Queen said:

This is based on my experience with my facility. 

In my facility, the endo team is split into the pre/post team and the procedure team. 

The pre/post team prepares the patient for their procedure and then provides the recovery care after the procedure. Things like IV start, preprocedure assessment, teaching, ensuring the patient maintains their airway and vitals as they recover from sedation/anesthesia, discharging them. 

The procedure team fills two roles: the circulator and the assist role. The circulator is not the one getting hands on with the scopes and various things that go along with it but is responsible for assisting anesthesia, positioning the patient, managing specimens, documenting. The assist role helps the physician complete the procedure- passing up snares/brushes/needles/etc that are used for biopsies and what have you. They also work with the circulator and physician to ensure that specimens are labeled properly and placed in the correct type of fixative. They will do the immediate post-procedure scope precleaning. Depending on what time of day/day of the week, they may be responsible for reprocessing the scope to be used on the next patient if the scope processing team is done for the day or off for the weekend. 

Thanks for sharing, this is super helpful.