Submitted by glangrn, Manager Vascular Access Team, St. Francis Hospital on Tue Mar 23 15:50:48 2010
I have a physician who is wanting to know why our PICC team does not have a physician that oversees our department and follows all of our insertions. Is there a requirement for this or does someone have ideas on how to involve this physician?
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Medical director
Though not required, there are benifits to having a medical director. For one thing MDs have more clout in the hospital system - just a fact of life. Also, when you work with a medical director you can use order sets which include medications such as lidocaine, heparin flush and altepase as an MD has signed off and "prescribed" these meds for the procedure.
Nancy Costa CRNI
There is no such requirement
There is no such requirement from any regulatory body or professional organization. Nurses operate under our own license. Unlike PAs, our license is not linked to MDs. Our practice is decided by us, not MDs. We must operate under the laws governing our practice such as needing a legal order or prescription to give meds, or put in certain types of lines like PICCs. But how we do it is guided by national standards and guidlines, not by individual physician preferences or oversight. Lynn
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
126 Main Street, PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Blog http://hadawayassociates.blogspot.com/
Office Phone 770
Physician champion
I guess it would depend on the capacity that the physician will function. There are programs that have a medical director that they report to and then there are those that don't. In california where PICC insertions are well within the scope of practice of RNs, this is not required.
Angelo M. Aguila, BSN, RN
PICC Program Coordinator
Mills-Peninsula Health Services
1501 Trousdale Drive
Burlingame, Ca 94010
650-696-5137