Nursing Role in the Culture of SafetyBy Lorie Reilly, MSN, CRNP, CPNP

We are all responsible for practicing safety behaviors for error prevention, especially in the sedation environment. As key members of the sedation team, nurses are often the first to identify “safe catches” in the sedation environment. Here are a few examples: While performing a presedation assessment, the nurse practitioner notices the inp … [Read More...]
Cautionary Tales
Do You Know What I Know? Patient handoffs in pediatric procedural sedationBy Trish Scherrer, MD
While driving home after a long day in the sedation unit, a nurse’s cell phone rings. She ignores it and keeps driving, but it rings again. And again. So, she pulls over to see what the call is about. The number is for the observation unit, where the last MRI sedation patient of the day was transferred to finish his recovery and be discharged ba … [Read More...]
Child Life
Don’t Hold Your BreathBy Laura Mitchell, CCLS
It has been well established that rhythmic (or controlled) breathing can be an effective non-pharmacologic technique for reducing procedure-related pain and anxiety. Controlled breathing can lower heart rates and promote vasodilation. (Tollison, 2002) Bubbles and pinwheels are frequently used to demonstrate controlled breathing techniques for … [Read More...]
Quality and Safety
Standardizing Sedation Quality Outcomes and Adverse Event Definitions: The TROOPS toolsBy Cheri Landers, MD
Ask any two sedation providers what an adverse event in procedural sedation is and you will likely get two different answers. Whether the events that occur during sedation are “adverse” or not are debated, plus a standardized definition of any individual event during procedural sedation has been challenging. Research manuscripts often select their … [Read More...]
Membership Communications
SPS: There’s An App for That!By Sue Kost, MD
When preparing a “hot topic” for presentation as a pediatric resident in the 1980’s, I would head to the medical library and search the Index Medicus for relevant articles, then comb the stacks and hope that the journal issues I wanted were available. Seems laughable. Thirty years later, “hot topic” information that once took hours or days to gather … [Read More...]
Literature Reviews
Upper Respiratory Infections and Airway Adverse Events in Pediatric Procedural SedationReviewer(s): Daniela A. Vidaurri, MD and Patricia Scherrer, MD
The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio
The Children’s Hospital of San Antonio
Authors: Mallory M, Travers C, McCracken C, Hertzog J, Cravero J Pediatrics. 2017 July; 140(1): e20170009 Abstract Background Upper respiratory infections (URIs) are associated with airway adverse events (AAEs) during general anesthesia. There have been no large studies examining the relationship between URIs and AAEs during pediatric procedural … [Read More...]
Variation in Pediatric Procedural Sedations Across Children’s Hospital Emergency Departments
Authors: Miller, Andrew F., et al. Hospital Pediatrics. Vol. 8, no. 1, Dec. 2017, pp. 36–43. Procedural sedation is often required in the pediatric emergency department for a variety of chief complaints, including abscess incision and drainage, fracture reduction, laceration repair and burn management. While there have been numerous advances in … [Read More...]