Tonometry and glaucoma

[blue85]

This is my first post and I am new to allnurses. Here's the scenario. I just finished preparing a statement for a course online discussion board for pharmacology class, and this week's forum discussed glaucoma medications. One of the questions my instructor asked was "how does the nurse know if the medications are effective?" In my response I said that pain scale was a factor, but since the goal of glaucoma meds are to lower IOP, I was thinking it is completely arbitrary for a nurse to use pain reduction to test effectiveness in this case. I was thinking that a scientific approach would be patient's report of pain reduction plus a tonometry test to measure effectiveness. So with that said, is use of a portable handheld tonometer as a tool to measure IOP within the nursing scope of practice? Or is tonometry only in the physician's scope of practice? Thank you.

[blue85]

Disregard.

After speaking with several nurses, there is a device called a rebound tonometer that was FDA approved in march 2017, that is safe for patient use at home and does not require a local anesthetic, which is probably why tonometry was never in the nursing scope prior. However, I know that this device is now in the nursing scope in Georgia, and as states update their nursing scope to allow this device to be used, we will probably see nurses use it as casually for glaucoma patients, as nurses use blood glucose meters for diabetics. With that said, I am correct! Tonometry combined with a pain assessment is the best way to determine if the glaucoma medication was effective.