anne74

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1. Does your OR have to hold til theres a PACU bay??

   anne74 replied to PACURN1818's topic in PACU

   I couldn't believe my eyes when I read that the OR just barges in and you have no clue what you're getting! The ORs always call before they're coming out with a quick report. And, if we don't have any nurses or if the CRNA/Resident can't sit with t...

2. New Grads in the PACU

   anne74 replied to Anjann's topic in PACU

   I was a new grad in a high acuity PACU. It's a wonderful place to learn how to take care of any kind of patient. Not to mention it's a huge open room, so you're constantly in the presence of other really experienced nurses and you learn a lot from ...

3. PACU RN's- what is your visitor policy?

   anne74 replied to RN34TX's topic in PACU

   Try to fight visitation all you can. We are forced to allow visitors within 45 minutes of pt arrival to Phase 1 PACU. Often pts are not awake, vomiting, pain is not controlled, etc, and family members become very upset and start giving the nurses a...

4. New nurse in PACU??

   anne74 replied to sungrl01's topic in PACU

   Oh - I get so tired of hearing that you HAVE to have ICU experience to be a PACU nurse. I started there as a new grad and have done just fine. They take new nurses in ICU, so why wouldn't they in the PACU? The PACU is a great place to learn, since...

5. all PACU RNs Wrote up!

   anne74 replied to jrgrad1912's topic in PACU

   Where is your manager in all of this? How was this allowed to happen? How about having a meeting and making a new policy to start requiring DC orders, instead of sending you straight to HR and punishing you for something you were never told to do in...

6. How about a liasion nurse ?

   anne74 replied to anr33's topic in PACU

   We use a liaison, and it is very helpful in keeping the natives at bay, if you will. The problem is, we RNs have to take turns being the liaison. So when we have a day where there's no beds in the hospital, you can count on getting ******* out by f...

7. Have You Ever Refused to Come in for Call?

   anne74 replied to All4Seasons's topic in PACU

   It's really not an option to refuse to come in. BUT, I'd personally call the day nurse, explain the situation and see if he/she wouldn't mind coming in early. Or, I'd ask the OR nurse if he/she could hold them the 20 minutes for day shift. Hopeful...

8. Patient assignments

   anne74 replied to Laney123's topic in PACU

   Each nurse gets assigned 2 bays, and then we go in order around the room. Our shifts are staggered, so the first nurse in gets the first patient and so on. It doesn't always shake out perfectly - some nurses get stuck with a patient all day long, w...

9. You might be a PACU nurse if...

   anne74 replied to mustanggirl's topic in PACU

   You give guys a "man-o-lantern" when pulling leads off a hairy chest. You call the floor to give report and the secretary says, "They're in report right now - she'll call you back." Uh - yeah - I'm trying to give report! The floor asks in report whe...

10. Narcotics at the bedside in t he PACU

    anne74 replied to pinkfloydfreak's topic in PACU

    How could you realistically waste narcotics after each dose? We keep them at the bedside and waste after the patient has moved on. We have lock boxes at each bedside that we're supposed to lock them in when we're not using them - but no one ever u...

11. Does your PACU recover general anesthesia c-sections?

    anne74 replied to Judycpan's topic in PACU

    We do occasionally get general c-sections. We just make sure they're stable and quickly ship them back to the L & D floor, so they can do the fundus checks, etc.

12. Pre Op pts in PACU

    anne74 replied to wayover20's topic in PACU

    Don't think your administration has fully thought that through. Maybe it will take one of them lying there, waiting for surgery as they watch a post-op scream, puke and rip their gown off. When our pre-op staff isn't around, the OR nurses pre-op t...

13. How much math is required?

    anne74 replied to Mallory85's topic in General Nursing

    I was nervous about the math thing too before going into nursing. In Nursing School, the main focus is memorzing conversions - like to the metric system. We also had to do drip conversions (like figuring out how many millileters a patient should ge...

14. Family Visitation in the PACU

    anne74 replied to smidgen21's topic in PACU

    We're piloting a family visitation policy. It's been rocky. We allow families to come back within 45 minutes of a patient's arrival - never mind if the patient has uncontrolled pain, is sitting on a bed pan, is freaking out. It makes it very hard ...

15. Opinions please re: Phase I

    anne74 replied to sharann's topic in PACU

    We follow ASPAN standards and always staff 2 PACU RN's - none of this "use a charge nurse from another floor" or an "OR nurse" as back up. Sometimes it takes a sentinel event before hospitals are willing to put out the money to safely staff. You'd ...