LPN in the OR?

[ral2009]

Hello everyone,

I'm a nurse manager looking to do something that has not yet been done in my facility. I was wondering if anyone here has had experience working in an OR or a procedural area as an LPN?

We are a women's health OR and 99.9% of our procedures are performed translady partsl. I am looking to hire an LPN to be a "scrub" and essentially be the doctor's right hand man. We formerly had a medical assistant in this role, however we ran into hiccups because the medical assistant could not help in our recovery area where our patients recover after receiving propofol.

My main question is if an LPN would be able to assist in the recovery of patients if accompanied by an RN? In a time of budget cuts I am trying to resourcefully use staff to the fullest extend of their scope.

Any insight would be appreciated!!

[brownbook]

I worked out patient surgery in California. We used LVN's in PACU. If the patient was stable, s/p cataract or other minor procedure, the RN admitted the patient, wrote a one sentence note, signed their name, and handed off the patient's care to the LVN. The LVN's did everything else, just couldn't give IV medications.

Even patients with more "major" surgeries, once they had been in PACU a while, were stable, should not need IV medications, they could be handed off to the LVN.

[Archerlpvn, LPN, LVN]

In many states, LPNs can function in this role. I think a lot of it has to do with the specific state you are in their LPN scope of practice. It would help if we knew what state you're in.