midnightkk

I work in a Medical Imaging Department, Days only job and it is wonderful. We work every 4th Saturday, and get the Monday off. There are only 3 nurses that work here, with casuals for vacation relief. My problem is one of our RN's is relocating out of town, and one is on maternity leave until October. The jobs have been posted, but no one is applying. This is going to leave us in a dilema. Our manager may try and replace the RN's with LPN's, until we get more RN's. I know this is a temporary measure, and the LPN's will be a great help, but it will put more responisiblity on the two RN's that will be left making the job more stressfull. We work closely with radiology technoligists and radiologists. It is a great place to work. The RN's prepare patients for CT scan, scrub in for angio and interventional procedures, conscious sedation, do pre & post care. What can I do to get more RN's? I am going to make a promotional DVD, to let other RN's what we do...I am the CRN, in charge of the hiring aspect of the job, as well as carry a full patient load.

I work as an RN in Medical Imaging In British Columbia. We have a cath lab and Interventional suite, the RN's start the IV's for CT Scan and inject the contrast (or whoever is free does this). I know the x-ray techs, with about 20 years of service make about $33.00/hour, and the RN's make approx $31.00/hour. I do not complain, as we work as a team. I can see occasionally that there is a lack of understanding the clear role of the nursing duties, but generally we all get along. We have some type A personalities, and I know everyone does not want to keep the scanner table empty for one minute, but sometimes we need to slow down and listen to the patients concerns. I am getting off topic, but just a little venting. In BC, nurses go to school for four years to get their BSN (there is no longer a 3 year diploma program), and I believe it is also four years to be a radiology tech, so I think we should make equal pay. After all we both are saving lives.

At our hospital, we fill out a precontrast questionnaire. If a patient has any impaired renal function, or renal disease, or one kidney, or if they are receiving the medication - metphormine(glucaphage) then we need a creatinine. This is picked up while doing the screening form. Our booking office will also alert us if a patient is diabetic, then it is the RN's responsibility to phone the patient and see if they are taking metphormine, then we arrange to have the patient go for bloodwork and the results are faxed to our Diagnostic Imaging Dept.. The creatinine has to be within 3 months. If it hasn't been done within the last 3 months, we do it stat. We do not have any protocol for rehydrating the patient. I hope this answers some of your questions.