I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: Centers => Dialysis: Workers => Topic started by: NurseNae on October 11, 2007, 01:57:10 PM
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I have heard recently that techs will be in charge of lab work in California! I think this is lunacy!
...so now the RN can't put down the box of Godiva and get up from her station to do a draw?!
I think is a bad move and I see so many problems in the future.
Nae
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Us homies do our own lab draws weekly or monthly, and that was after 12 days of training, so techs should be ok doing it.
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I've personally never heard of an RN drawing blood. Every time I've ever had blood drawn it's always been by a Lab Tech.
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At my old centre, techs did everything that nurses did as far as direct patient care was concerned, except for administering meds. Even if a patient just wanted some Tylenol, it had to be given by a nurse. Techs did push heparin, but a nurse had to draw it. Techs always drew labs, and techs accessed catheters. In fact, I was kind of surprised to find out that in a lot of units only nurses could access catheters. One time however, a tech started to access my catheter without a mask on, and she got ripped up one side and down the other for that. When I started home hemo, after two weeks of training, I was accessing my own catheter (when I still had it), drawing my own labs, and administering my own drugs (IV heparin and subq Epogen), and if I have anything to say about it, I always will.
Adam
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At my center, the techs do just about everything. EXCEPT a nurse always comes to listen to my chest with a stethoscope, and to inject the medications into my dialysis line. I get Epogen and Hectorol. Other than that, the techs do everything. There is usually one to three RNs available.