A clinical pathway for endoscopy.

The purpose of this article is to describe the development and use of a clinical pathway in an endoscopy setting. The goal was to incorporate all of the established practices of each discipline--nursing, medicine, admissions, laboratory, radiology, and others--without changing their practice models. The clinical pathway is the framework for all the activities in the management and practice of the unit, including the nursing standard of care, nursing competency-based practice, hospital policy and procedures, quality improvement, risk management, and physician preference.