Am I Being Unrealistic?

I work in a busy PACU that has no ancillary help. There is no secretary or transporter "assigned" to this PACU. The phones ring off the hook and the RN's are expected to answer the phones, take off orders and enter them into the computer, fax, scan orders to Pharmacy, BedBoard, Call BedBoard to get a room assignment (or not
as is the usual case). The Surgeons sit at this 2 person desk, dictating orders, writing notes, having loud conversations with other surgeons and anesthesia. The OR nurses sit at this desk also finishing their charting
and we are climbing over everybody trying to get all this work done.

The Pain in My Side, literally, is that this unit has no transporter to get the 30-40 cases per day to their rooms.

About 95% of the patients are on Telemetry, which means an ACLS person has to go with them, which rules out
most of the OR staff. We have to accompany any "PCT" and transport the patient to the floor (which can take up to 30 minutes). We have to BEG the already shortstaffed OR PCTs to help us all day long, and by the end of the day, they run when they see us... (and I really can't blame them)... this is not "their job"..

The weekends are a nightmare, in that they do 10-15 cases with no transporter available and only 2 RN's working. (And we all know, 2 RN's have to be in the PACU at all times).... Most of the patients are ICU patients
so holding these patients in the PACU for hours and hours can be an "experience" if you know what I mean....
Things can turn sour quickly...and before you know it, you are running an ICU Unit with only 2 people in the room!

This past weekend, we had to BEG the floor nurses and ICU Charge Nurse, to come and get their patients! We had no one to get them out of the recovery room!! (Of course this took hours to get everybody out!)

Managment is fully aware of all of this and they have no one that can do this job on a regular basis. They have no plans to hire a secretary either... as this is the way "they have always done it"... (And they have lost 6 nurses in the past 4 months because of the way this unit is run)

Physically, I can't do this much longer. I can push stretchers, but the big hospital beds cause my previously repaired hernia to ache for hours after a 12 hr shift and I am so afraid it will need to be repaired again if I continue doing this. I want to be a "team " player, but is this really in my job description?

Do other PACU's expect their RN's to push patients all day?

Thank you for any suggestions or advice...