Patient safety and nurses’ role in procedural sedation
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Patient safety and nurses’ role in procedural sedation

Eric Ketcham Medical director, emergency services, San Juan Regional Medical Center, San Juan, New Mexico, US
Cindy Ketcham Clinical director, patient care services, San Juan Regional Medical Center, San Juan, New Mexico, US
Frances Lopez Bushnell Director of nursing research, University of New Mexico Hospital, Albuquerque, US

Eric Ketcham and colleagues explain the circumstances in which supervised nurses can provide sedation for patients undergoing specific emergency procedures

In the United States, following the singer Michael Jackson’s fatal overdose of the sedative propofol in 2009, there has been extensive controversy about the administration of the drug by nurses during procedural sedation, or sedation during specific procedures that physicians can suspend to assist nurses in airway management. This article reviews the evidence base for nurses administering procedural sedation under medical supervision.

Emergency Nurse. 21, 6, 20-24. doi: 10.7748/en2013.10.21.6.20.e1218

Correspondence

klopezbushnell@salud.unm.edu

Peer review

This article has been subject to double blind peer review

Conflict of interest

None declared

Received: 18 July 2013

Accepted: 06 September 2013

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