jajajody

Our CT and MRI techs can start IVs (nurses do most though which allows techs to do more scans) and they give all IV contrast. As nurses, we prep patients for procedures, calculate GFRs, hydrate patients if needed prior to contrast administration. We also are aware of contrast allergy pts, check to ensure that pre-meds were taken and monitor these patients during and after contrast administration. In addition, nurses administer benzodiazepines to claustrophobic patients, monitor patients during conscious sedation in interventional radiology and interventional ultrasound, as well as monitor ICU patients during MRI. At my facility, we have 24 hour nursing coverage in all radiology modalities. I think we are the exception rather than the rule though. My facility is a tertiary and Level 1 Trauma Center so our needs are larger for these reasons. We rotate assignments daily. I may work in IR Monday, MRI Tuesday, radiology prep/recovery Wednesday, etc. I am an old ER nurse (25 years) and accepted a job in radiology one year ago. Not only was I surprised by how much nurses do in radiology, I found that it was an easy transition for me. I really enjoy my job and can see myself becoming a certified radiology nurse and staying in this field for the remainder of my career.

I am looking for feedback from other rad nurses that work in MRI and INTERVENTIONAL RADIOLOGY. I would like to know how you deal with ICU pts and critical ER trauma pts . Do your ICU or ER nurses stay with these types of pts? If not, have there been issues?

I would like to hear how other institutions are handling low GFR's. At my institution, we recently started calculating GFR's for both CT. If GFR is below 60 for CT, we hydrate patients prior to the CT with contrast. The hydration process is 200cc/hr x 2 hours prior to contrast administration and 200cc/hr x 2 hours after contrast. The bad thing is that patients are coming to the hospital for what they think is a 30-60 minute visit winds up being 4 1/2 to 5 hours. We previously were just taking creatinines into consideration, but now that GRF calculations are used, many people with normal creatinines are havubg ti receuve hydration.

I work at a teaching facility where the lead IR technologist is the board runner/leader of the department. Nurses are not treated as afterthoughts. Some nurses have had a problem with a rad tech directing them. My thought is we are all an essential part of the team and each has their role--the lead tech's role is to ensure that needed equip is available, staff is assigned to cases and the flow remains constant. He never tells a nurse how to nurse just like I don't tell him how to do his job. We do have a patient care coordinator (charge nurse) who supervises nurses in IR, MRI, CT, Nuc med, ultrasound.

I am an old ER nurse who transferred to interventional radiology/angio 6 months ago. I am not so surprised to hear that SICU census is down considering all the embolizations of traumatic organ injuries that we perform on trauma patients. Not only does this cut down on the need for surgery but is shortens length of stay in SICU.