Hooking up epidural line

[LaborRN]

Hello,

I am a travel nurse working in FL and at the hospital I work at the anesthesiologist wants you to hook up the epidural line to the patient after he places the epidural. I am uncomfortable doing this since they have no epidural policy and it is against Awhonn guidelines to initiate the epidural continuous infusion. Also, I called the board and they have no specific guidelines in the nurse practice act. A couple of them downright refuse to hook it up. What would you do?

[murseman24, MSN, CRNA]

13 hours ago, LaborRN said:

This is Florida. I havent seen any CRNAs but they have AAs that do spinals in the OR. I would be okay with doing it IF they had a policy or if I was backed up by the BON but when I called the BON they told me that they don't have guidelines on epidurals specifically. They told me to follow hospital policy. I told them there isn't one... I don't think I should be expecter to do something that there is no policy on if the BON has no support to provide for me either.

There are no CRNAs there because that sounds like a horrific work environment. AAs don't really have a choice or know better. And technically they aren't allowed to do spinals without the anesthesiologist in the room, so they are most likely fraudulently billing anesthesia services.

[LaborRN]

17 hours ago, 2BS Nurse said:

I'm so glad I'm not working inpatient when I read these!!!! Doing what's best for the patient is not a priority anywhere!

Not everywhere practices this way ?

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

On 10/24/2019 at 1:28 PM, LaborRN said:

Hello,

I am a travel nurse working in FL and at the hospital I work at the anesthesiologist wants you to hook up the epidural line to the patient after he places the epidural. I am uncomfortable doing this since they have no epidural policy and it is against Awhonn guidelines to initiate the epidural continuous infusion. Also, I called the board and they have no specific guidelines in the nurse practice act. A couple of them downright refuse to hook it up. What would you do?

Absolutely not and as a traveler, I would refuse to do it. It's his job to do the initial loading dose and connect the infusion to ensure it's running properly and making sure the patient is not having any difficulty.

They get paid PLENTY to hook it up. Nope, nope, double nope.

[LaborRN]

22 hours ago, Jory said:

Absolutely not and as a traveler, I would refuse to do it. It's his job to do the initial loading dose and connect the infusion to ensure it's running properly and making sure the patient is not having any difficulty.

They get paid PLENTY to hook it up. Nope, nope, double nope.

Thanks for your response and I agree with you. The fact that this is an expectation is ridiculous. Especially with no policy.