My Specialty
Advanced Endoscopy, Melodie Bishop, Keck Medicine of USC
Leading a busy GI team and launching a new high-tech facility
Melodie Bishop RN, MSN
Nurse Manager, Endoscopy
Keck Medicine of USC, Los Angeles
Please share with us the arc of your nursing career.
After beginning my career in Connecticut as an ICU nurse, I came to California and have grown within the Keck system. I was a registry nurse here for several years, beginning in 2005, and then signed on as a staff RN in 2014.
Over a year later, I was promoted to nurse coordinator of the outpatient preop/postop unit, and then became a nurse supervisor of three different outpatient preop/postop areas. In 2019, I was promoted to nurse manager of the GI lab pre/post and procedural space, and in 2020, I added the motility lab area to my direct supervision.
Tell us about the Keck facility where you’re located.
Keck Medicine of USC is a tertiary care hospital. Our department is currently on the second floor of the main hospital, but we are in the process of building our own endoscopy facility, which will be called the Center for Advanced Endoscopy.
Keck is a big surgical hospital — we get a lot of transfers, and people come here for a higher level of care. We do screenings, but more often than not, they’re in preparation for surgery or a transplant. We’re part of the main hospital, so while we take care of outpatients, we also care for GI inpatients.
We bring cases down to the GI unit from all the other floors, and we even provide GI services to patients at Norris Cancer Hospital, our sister facility across the street.
Our team is very busy — we’re always needed somewhere. We work with five different service lines: gastroenterology; hepatobiliary/transplant; and surgical services, including colorectal, thoracic and general. We have a separate unit right now for motility studies, but when we move to our new facility, we’re going to merge all of those services.
What are your responsibilities as a nurse manager in the endoscopy suite?
I have oversight of all day-to-day activities of the GI lab. I manage budgets, staff schedules, patient scheduling, direct patient care, employee management, research, education, quality and performance improvement, and professional leadership. I’m also responsible for Kronos timekeeping, documentation and working collaboratively with all members of the healthcare team.
