Nursing presence in the procedure rooms

[CathRT]

Greetings all.

I come to you as an experienced CathLab RT. I have a question and hope I can use you as a resource. I have spent hours researching forums and websites with no results. My question is as follows:

1. Does a nurse have to be "in the room" during the prepping and drapping of a patient? (RT only, no sedation or meds, prior to case start)

Can anyone please help me find any California State Nursing Law that can support either side of this question?

Our Lab is incredibly short staffed and our RN's insist they must be present during the prepping phase of a procedure subsiquently delaying nearly every case. I hope you appreciate my attempt in simply attempting to move cases forward and reduce turn around times. I would, also appreciate, any feed back on the subject from the community.

Thank You

[ann h]

I am a UK cath lab RN.

I would say that an RN should always be with a patient sedation or no sedation.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

If the nurses have respnsibility for the patients- and they do- then they should be the ones to determine when and if the patient can be left unobserved by nursing.

[tvccrn, ASN, RN]

Another reason may be that ultimately the nurse could be held responsible for the monitoring of the sterile technique.