Recently, I saw two things that made me uncomfortable- a post of a PT drawing blood to assist the nurses in a SNF after taking a 10 minute crash course, and people suggesting that PTs be allowed to intubate patients after taking a crash course on that. I'm all for advocacy and practicing at the top of one's license, but this seems unethical to me. I for one would not want someone to stick or intubate me whose only training in those skills were crash courses, but I don't know if I'm overreacting or if others even share these concerns. What do you think?
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Crash courses
Started by dgt329
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What!??? I would not agree to intubate or draw blood. Not under the scope of PT practice. Legally we are not allowed to use needles unless we get certified with dry needling which still has nothing to do with drawing blood. No one can learn how to intubate within 10 min.
The intubation thing shouldn't be worth your time getting upset- not going to happen ever, don't believe things you see. Drawing blood- depends. Many PTs are being repurposed as PCTs with on the job training. Drawing blood may mean a pinprick for an accucheck of blood sugar. I also have colleagues who aren't even PTs and they've been trained to draw blood for research studies in a short (less than hour, not sure on how much less) course, so not really sure of what is required for that.
If I remember correctly, they were drawing 1 mL of blood from everyone in a SNF for testing. I've had a hard time nailing down exactly who can and can't draw blood, especially in different states
