Wonder what radiology nurse do

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Gonna have my placement real soon the a medical imaging department chose this area as I have literally never heard of radiology nurses, to my understanding pts only enter this department for radio/chemo, angiography/ct/mri/ultrasound where all the procedures are done by doctors and technicians and they don't really need to stay in the ward for a long time, so what exactly do the nurses in radiology do?

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Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

they get history, start IV's, educate patient on procedure and possible side effects and determine if/when patient is able to be discharged. They may inject into IV's or administer meds and watch for changes that could indicate patient is in heart failure, having MI, CIA, quit breathing---some do moderate sedation and assist MD (not at same time I hope)

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As stated above they may assist with procedures, there are more studies done under radiology now and obtaining biopsies, helping with para or thora centesis, as well as giving imaging contrast etc. Assessing pts during conscious sedation. This is a relatively new field for nursing.

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Specializes in Pedi.

Interventional radiology definitely involves nurses. If children are seen in this radiology department, they often get sedated for radiology scans/procedures that adults would do awake so there's a lot of nursing care involved in the prep, procedure and recovery.

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