Nursing doing ABG's

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Does anyone work in a hospital that does not have a very efficient Respiratory dept? There is a possibility that ours will be eliminated and Nursing will do the ABG's and such. I'd like to talk to anyone who has experienced this, how the staff bought into it, the training, etc. Our Resp. dept closes at 4 pm and afterwards the nurses take care of resp. treatments and such. Resp. is on call for ABG's presently and once in a blue moon for a ventilator. They don't intubate, so I'm really pondering the pros and cons of this if it were to happen.

Thank You

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I worked many years ago in a facility like that, actually several, but I would first check with your state, and see what the requirements are for having an RT in house, etc. Also, check with your risk management dept.

As long as your ventilator time is quite small and they would be available for that, then there should not be a problem. But especially if you do not use vents that often, it would be hard for your nursing staff to keep up their proficiency with that and could cause liability issues for your facility.

Blood gases are an easy thing to teach and learn.

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Specializes in Nurse Manager, Labor and Delivery.

Happened onto this question while browsing. I came from a hospital where I worked in ICU/CCU and although we had a respiratory department and one assigned to our unit specifically 24/7, nursing was responsible for ABG draws. As a matter of fact, if we had an ABG ordered, we would just draw labs from that same stick. If we needed respiratory to do it, they would, but we were first line to do it, along with vent changes, suction, etc. I rather liked it really. I learned a lot from it. And if I needed it done, I didn't need to wait for someone to come and do it. We were also responsible for resp. treatments (thru vent and not). Our respiratory didn't intubate either, that was left to residents.

Now this was 15 years ago and I have no clue what they are doing now. The hospital I work in now, they do not draw ABG's or do any vent changes or even suction...no treatments. Funny how things go.

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Specializes in ER, HH, CTICU, corrections, cardiology, hospice.

I worked in a ICU where we did our own ABG's. It was not a big deal really two things I would remember is check for colateral circulation (read allens test). And keep pressure on the site for at least 5 minutes. I enjoyed doing them.:D

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Specializes in Nurse Manager, Labor and Delivery.

[. I enjoyed doing them.:D

I did too!!

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THANK YOU!.....To everyone who has replied so far. I really appreciate your suggestions and if have any more that come to mind, please let me know. We're a level 3 hospital, and I figure if you don't technically have to have a physician in house for the ER (they just have to be readily available but could legally sleep in their own bed if they lived close by) I don't imagine we have to have an in house RT. But I am checking into the legalities of it all.

What would you suggest for training? When you did a vent (as a RN) did you feel comfortable after your training to do them? One of the full time RT's is an LPN from a long time ago, who has kept her liscense active, so I thought that would be a great help as well. If this came to be, only a select few nurses would be certified to do it,(my clinically strongest and reliable) and a pay adjustment would go with it as well. I will be doing it as well.

Ya'll have been very helpful!

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Hi! I work at a facility that has limited RT support. They are on site till 2000H. Nurses in ER and ICU have the transfer of medical function to perform. They also go through out the facility and do them as necessary. I loved doing them, no big deal.

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That's great! Question: Do ya'll obtain and run them or just run them and give it to lab? What type of training did you get before hand and did you do a competency check as well?

Thanks for your time!

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That's great! Question: Do ya'll obtain and run them or just run them and give it to lab? What type of training did you get before hand and did you do a competency check as well?

Thanks for your time!

We would only obtain the sample and the lab would run the analysis. Yes there was a written exam and 3 witnessed ABG draws. These were witnessed by an RT or nurse educator.

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In NC arterial pucnture is a "certifiable " procedure. The individual hospital sets the polisy and training standards. ANalysis is a totally different situation and falls under CLIA regs for laboratory tests with standards for maintaince, calibration, etc.

We have 24/7 Respiratory coverage and are certified to do art sticks to facilitate getting labs in emergent situations.

Sheila RN/RRT

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