Warning: novice blogger at work

A basic introduction: I've been an RN for five years, and transferred from med-surg to the endoscopy room in January. The small community hospital where I work had never had a dedicated endo nurse before me; previously, the OR circulators rotated through the endo room, and they still do when I'm not working. I work with a scrub nurse (almost always the same LPN, who is a joy to work with) and four general surgeons. Colonoscopies and EGDs are our bread and butter; because we are a small hospital, we don't do ERCPs or other more extensive procedures. Once in a while we do a small ortho procedure.

I handle the sedation, monitoring, and specimens. Versed and Demerol have been the drugs of choice, but one of the docs just switched to Fentanyl. Hopefully the others will also make the switch. The anesthesia providers will provide MAC with Propofol if necessary. 

Endoscopy hasn't gotten boring for me yet. I was worried that doing the same type of procedures every day would get dull, but every case is different. Also, it is "my" room, and I have been able to set it up how I want and am working on changing the conscious sedation flowsheet. It feels good to have ownership of an area of the hospital, even if it is just one room, and being in charge of the room gives me challenges that will (hopefully!) keep me from getting bored.