patsue53

Noone receiving sedation should be allowed to drive home. Our patients are told they are not to drive for 12 hours. If they don't have a driver we allow them to use a delivery service that charges $15.00 each way and will walk them to the door and ...

We use SPOT too. Mixing that india ink is nasty. I'd say make yourself a hero and introduce your new unit to SPOT!

We average around 32 cases per day with 47 being the most we've done in one day. This includes 2 campuses but one campus is inpatient only. We also do bronchs, ercp's, eso manometry, rectal ultrasound, prostate tumor volumetric studies and seed imp...

Hey Janet, who are you calling old!? :chuckle I'm 50 years old, I've worked in Endo for 8 years and held my CGRN for almost 5 years. Colons and Endos on healthy or slightly sick individuals don't require an anesthesiologist. A little sedation wil...

I'm an RN who has worked Endo for 8 years. The vast majority of our patients do very well with Versed and Demerol. I can't tell you how often the patients ask me "when are we going to start?" as I'm removing the blood pressure cuff and ekg patches....

I'm also curious as to why you would be cleaning it before resinserting it? Do you clean your fork between bites? Passing thru: "banding" is placing small rubber bands around esophageal varices via an endoscope.

We usually just tell our patients that it will be easier to expel the air if they stay on their left side.......but then I tell mine that they can lay however they're comfortable. We don't have a written policy about it. I kind of look at it as one...

I think you should review the definition of conscious sedation....or moderate sedation which I believe is the current preferred terminology. All the RN's in our department are required to be ACLS certified in case a patient has an adverse reaction ...

This article explains it better than I can. I know that it causes respiratory distress with cyanosis and when blood is drawn it looks like chocolate milk. It's treated with IV Methylline blue. I've never seen a case of it...hope I don't! http://ww...

We've all been trained in recognizing and treating methemoglobanemia but I've never seen it. I think it's very VERY rare. I'm surprised your docs have stopped using Cetacaine because of it. Do you spray with something else?

Never done an ERCP? There are days when I wish I could say that! LOL There's alot of technical skill and coordination involved with wires in an ERCP. The medicating is conscious sedation, but gets a little tricky because it usually takes more than...

HI Amy...thanks for asking! :) I've been working in GI for about 7 years now. I've had my CGRN for 4 years. I really love it, but do get tired of the call. I don't mind Saturday's so much because we're only open from 8 to noon on Saturdays. The...

In 1996 my father was dying of lung cancer. The nurse at the cancer center called and asked my stepmother to please bring in my father's medications as she needed some information off the bottles. My step-mother questioned her as to why she couldn't ...

I worked full time through all my children's babyhood. I was back to work when they were 8 weeks old (including the preemie twins who stayed in NICU for 2 weeks.) My children are now teenagers and the twins will be on their own very soon. If I ha...

I think this subject has been handled very well. The reasons for wearing gloves and hand-washing have been thoroughly explaned and defended. Why any nurse in this day and age would expose themselves and risk their co-workers and patients by not glov...

I work in a hospital lab and our open ours are 7:30 to 4:30 (I think....doesn't really seem to matter what our hours frankly.) But we have nurses starting at staggered times starting at 6:30 and the latest shift starts at 9:30. Then the "on call" te...

Only anesthesia administers Propofol in our endo lab and like ButtRN I'm more than thankful! We typically use versed and demerol...occasionally fentanyl...and morphine or nubain if the patient is allergic to demerol. Propofol is very powerful. It'...

geeceejay, the numerical markings on the scope are guidelines and NOT definitive place markers. After you've been in the field for a while you'll be able to recognize (most of the time, but not always especially in the colon) the anatomical differen...

Scopette, this problem is pretty universal. To many docs a procedure is money and the faster you go the more $$ you can make. It's unfortunate but true. We've been known to plant ourselves in front of the "orifice" in question and not move until th...

In our endo lab we have LPN's who assist the physician. They spray the patient's throats because it is within their scope of practice to administer meds that aren't IV. I guess it depends on the laws in your state, but cetacaine spray (or lidocaine ...

I always try to remember to punch out "no lunch" when I don't get 30 minutes for lunch, but it's so automatic to just swipe my badge and leave that sometimes I forget. I seldom get 15 minute coffee breaks and they're just a wash. We only get paid o...

I vote NO! I was proud to wear my cap as a symbol of my achievment in my Nursing graduation picture. But for work they're impractical and a nuisance. (they sure are cute tho. :) )

What I've noticed in reading over these posts is that noone questions the legality of hospitals not making sure that nurses gets the legally mandated breaks that they have coming to them. I was even told once that hospitals are "exempt" from the stat...

Don't you wish God would have equipped us with adjustable straps on our boobs (like on a bra) so you could hike those puppies when they start to sag? HMMM.....maybe I've just come up with an invention to make me a millionaire!

I'm responding to your post from the point of view of a GI certified nurse. We have had many patients come in for scopes who are extremely overweight and in reading their history I find that they've had gastric bypass several years back. So the res...