Observing radiation safety practices in GI nursing.
During the past 2 years, the staff in the Endoscopy Department at Georgetown University Hospital noticed an increase in the number of procedures being performed in the x-ray department. The nursing staff were becoming concerned with the amount of x-ray exposure they were receiving. The purpose of this article is to describe the process in which the nursing staff are equally rotated through radiology based on a daily log of fluoroscopy exposure for each nurse. At the completion of each x-ray procedure, the nurses chart the amount of x-ray and fluoroscopy exposure. Each nurse wears a total body film badge while a second badge is worn at the collar. Monthly dosimetry reports are made available for each nurse to review. After 1 year of monitoring by this method, it was found that fluoroscopy exposure was evenly distributed to each nurse.
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D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D004219:District of Columbia; D005373:Film Dosimetry; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D011834:Radiation Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D011859:Radiography