stitches

as far as I'm aware that is a Dr, NP, or Pa's area.

I'm pretty sure it is hospital dependant. In other states the BON may have specific rules for this but in Ohio I am unaware of any prohibition of permission in the NPA. In one of our local hospitals they employ "Suture Techs" which are hospital trained personel with no other education requirement besides a HS diploma. If a "Suture Tech" can put in stitches I can't imaging nurses cannot but I have never known a hospital that allows it.

Do they teach suturing at school? It's not an RN's task. You could learn to do it though.

Very good question.

I am wondering, from the "old timers", did RN's used to perform this function?

The only times I know if it being done in our area was during natural disasters when senior nurses got a quick tutorial and were suture those lacerations deemed minor by the physicians and one case of an ER RN stitching a minor laceration with the physician at bedside supervising and the RN was almost fired over the incident. Definitely need to check with the state BON on that one. Interesting about the suture techs though, what state was that????

Saw it....Ohio.

Hi, im just in the process of trying to emigrate to the USA, and had no idea that RNs there didnt suture!! Im an a and e (ER) nurse in Britain and all our nurses are taught to sutre on pigs trotters (feet) as its very close to human skin. Ive just started suturing lacs on people and I love it!!

Just curious.. are RNs allowed to remove stitches? I had a mole removed a few weeks ago and had to get stitches and a younger girl who I assume the RN came in and removed the stitches, I didn't even see the DR. I wasn't sure of her title..Thanks!

I had surgery in a Los Angeles hospital. When I had my staples removed, a nurse was allowed to do it, but I couldn't leave until a doctor came to check for infection or whatever.

Good topic and engaging discussion, so much that I couldn't 'get away' without adding my 2 cents worth. :)

I used to travel with the transplant teams and stitched all of the donors post-op (also happens to be post-mortem) All incisions were large and covered the whole torso. Prior to that I soutured a lot with the tissue team and I have always thought it was 'fun' because it is something you can do and leave a nice touch (eg messy vs. pretty stitch). On the organ donors they were still alive (heart alive but brain dead) and we'd perform sugrical cut-down to get lymph nodes and they would do cross-matching with recipients before we actually took them to the O.R. [Thankfully this helps detect rejection in people before transplantation and in essence prevents a lot of graft failures].

Anyway, I was dissecting right next to the femoral artery, and sometimes you'd get a real fiesty arteriole who'd spurt about a foot in the air. When you are talking about a superficial area I see no reason why nurses could not do this. In my state (Indiana) unless specifically forbidden by the BON, a nurse can be trained to do a lot, but 'trained' implies a paper trail.

Essentially it means someone has signed you off as competent and there are documented cases where you were trained (usually it is >3). No matter what though, when it comes down to it if somebody sues (and you were trained) you and everybody above you will be sued. It is an unfair world where UAP have more autonomy than a nurse, but this is the age we live in. It amazed me when they allowed medtechs to give IM injections. I always wondered who is to teach the patient what to look for? My rant for today is over...