Can Nurses Order Lab Tests or Not?

There are a lot more restrictions than what a doctor would get if they decided to do a lab test, but in general, it’s a lot harder for them to do it.

Can nurses order lab tests?

Nurses can order lab tests under a lot of the CLIA regulations and it may even depend on what state they’re in the country to be able to do it.

Though nurses can order lab tests, they usually aren’t able to do it on their authority.

For one, they wouldn’t be spending their own money which would mean the hospital would be wasting money if they don’t need the test.

Also, nurses have less experience than other people working in the medical industry, so they may have to get certain steps through other people.

See also: Nursing Chain of Command

These nurses may also have to get a specific test because they don’t have the full authority to order every test.

This also doesn’t put into context the state the nurse is living in and what their legislators may restrict them.

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Can nurse practitioners order lab tests?

Generally, nurse practitioners can only order certain kinds of tests.

The biggest thing they can order is an X-ray, but they can also get lab work to make their jobs easier.

X-rays are necessary for just about everything these people do with the hospital that they work in.

X-rays can even be useful when finding information about certain diseases since there are aliments that directly eat bone marrow.

There is a good amount of paperwork that goes into making this happen but it should be simple enough for the people who want to have their problems solved.

It will also take some authority from their superiors but isn’t a big deal overall.

See also: 5 Rights of Delegation in Nursing

Running these lab tests can find out a bunch of smaller information that can assist the patient in the future.

Usually, medical professionals will take the blood of the patient that they’re working with.

Even a little dosage of the blood that nurses take from the patient can tell them their cholesterol, diseases they may have, blood thickness, and other kinds of information that can be key to assessing the status of that person.

They can also perform diagnostic tests, but they’re one of the smaller tests that patients shouldn’t be worried about.

See also: Can Nurse Practitioners Diagnose?

Can registered nurses order lab tests?

In general, registered nurses can order lab tests if it’s necessary to take care of the patient that they’re dealing with.

They don’t have nearly as much power as the other people in the hospital when it comes to doing any kind of order.

Their authority is usually reserved for making sure that they can order medications and tasks such as that.

They don’t have the authority to go out and run tests on a patient’s X-ray or blood tests because there’s a lot that can come out of that.

This is generally a rule in a lot of the hospitals in the United States, but not for every state.

Other kinds of nurses are usually allowed to verbally order tests since what their position does is going is more necessary for their job.

Registered nurses can in fact order lab tests, they just might have more hoops to jump through to get that done.

Though registered nurses are obviously educated, they don’t have the experience that other kinds of nurses have and are more prone to making mistakes.

Though, everyone at the hospital has the same goal, not all of the same skillset at the same time.

See also: SMART Goals for Nursing

Can nurses order blood tests?

In most positions, nurses are not allowed to order blood tests.

See also: What Are Registered Nurses Not Allowed to Do?

Blood tests are very serious and a lot of information can be learned from the patient based on the results that they give.

Knowing how to interpret this data accurately, is key to giving them the kind of information to make their lives better.

See also: Objective vs Subjective Data

This is all the more reason that they shouldn’t give that kind of authority to someone who may not be ready for it.

Patients getting misdiagnosed happens all the time in the workplace and can have serious effects on that patient’s lifestyle if they mess it up.

See also: Can a Nurse Diagnose a Patient?

This is why people in the hospital will make sure that they test this many times before they give the patient a proper diagnosis.

They could potentially tell them that they have an incurable disease or that they can’t have sex with anyone because of a test runs that they had an STD.

See also: Can You Be a Nurse If You Have Herpes?

This is why only advanced practice nurses are allowed to do it without much authority.

They have more experience in this process which allows them to have a better understanding of what they may mess up in and can give medication to those patients.

See also: Can Nurses Cut Diabetic Toenails?

Conclusion: Can nurses order lab tests?

Nurses have one of the most stressful jobs out there.

Making sure that you correctly perform functions to make a patient’s health better is great for both parties.

The more the hospital researches into the status of the patient, the more objective they can be about the decisions they are going to make on said patient.

There are no easy options when it comes to taking care of someone, which these kinds of restraints exist in the first place.

Nurses are very intelligent and educated, and their job is proof of that.

But in other areas, they don’t have the experience to deal with what may have to come with that.

Nurses are trained before they are hired for a very good reason.

Doing that gives them a great expectation of what they’re going to face when they get the job.

Regardless of how many times some of these nurses go through these processes, it can still be really stressful for them.

Some innocent patients can be affected by the decisions they are going to make.

Understanding this kind of scale for the consequences that can happen is why people go to their superiors before they run these tests.

At this point, you should already know whether can nurses order lab tests or not. We hope you find this article helpful.

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• What Are Nurse Practitioners Not Allowed to Do?
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• Can Nurses Do Ultrasounds?
• Can Nurses Pronounce Death?
• Can Nurses Be Paramedics?

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