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Discussion

Scope Of Practice

Hi Everyone! I am trying to find out if it is within my scope of practice, as an RN, to do a nasal swab for MRSA? I've Googled and not been able to come up with an answer. How can I find out?

Thanks in advance.

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    • Featured Replies

    To actually do the swabbing? Of course it is. To order the test? Depends on the facility and their protocol.

    I really cannot tell from your post which you are asking.

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    My facility has protocols to follow as well. I don't think you're gonna find an answer in your nurse practice act, this one should be facility/floor specific.

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    • Admin
    Hi Everyone! I am trying to find out if it is within my scope of practice, as an RN, to do a nasal swab for MRSA? I've Googled and not been able to come up with an answer. How can I find out?

    Thanks in advance.

    Refer to your facility's P&P, standing orders, etc. In my facility, it is an automatic order that anyone admitted from LTC/rehab into any unit and all patients admitted to critical units get swabbed nasally. Usually, it is the PCT who is actually getting the swab done. Seeing as the facility is perfectly fine with unlicensed personnel collecting the sample, it is also within the scope of a nurse. Pretty sure the only lab samples that would be out of scope are those involving invasive procedures, such as a lumbar puncture.

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    • Experts

    I am a Practical Nurse and I can do MRSA swabs and enter the order. Who else would do them if not a not a nurse?

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    • Author

    To actually do the swabbing, not order the test. May seem like funny question, but our doctor has always done it himself. Then a different doctor asked me to do it. No one seemed to know..... thank you for your answer.

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    To actually do the swabbing, not order the test. May seem like funny question, but our doctor has always done it himself. Then a different doctor asked me to do it. No one seemed to know..... thank you for your answer.

    Oh...once our CNA's know how to do it (mainly just nares though) then they can swab, label, and send to lab. It can really be done by anyone trained on it at my facility but if it's a wound, etc then it's usually the nurse unless only the MD's are changing the dressing.

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    • Experts
    Oh...once our CNA's know how to do it (mainly just nares though) then they can swab, label, and send to lab. It can really be done by anyone trained on it at my facility but if it's a wound, etc then it's usually the nurse unless only the MD's are changing the dressing.

    You have MDs that do dressings?

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    Yes, it's absolutely within the RN's scope.

    If the physician is trying to clear a patient of the MRSA designation, it needs to be done bilateral nares, axillae, and groin. Nares is not sufficient.

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    • Admin
    You have MDs that do dressings?

    Several of the surgeons I've worked with prefer to do their own first dressing change. Once that first change is done, the nurse takes over for subsequent changes.

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    To actually do the swabbing, not order the test. May seem like funny question, but our doctor has always done it himself. Then a different doctor asked me to do it. No one seemed to know..... thank you for your answer.

    Aha. The answer lies in the billing-- if the physician does it himself, it's billed as if he "collected a sample," and he gets paid more.

    Hell, I did nasal swabs for culture when I was a student, and that was back when Florence was a probie.

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    You have MDs that do dressings?

    Sort of, often the doc's take down the dressing to look at it and expect whomever to drop whatever they're doing and redress it for them. As a PP said, pretty much all of our surgeons want to do the first change but after that we do them. We have had instances where only the MDs did the dressing changes on certain wounds but I wonder if that has more to do with us being a teaching hospital.

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    • Experts

    Lol I would love to call the MD to do all my dressing changes for me. Some days I have several.

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