You might be a PACU nurse if... - Page 3

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  1. Aug 23, '07 by
    You might be a PACU nurse if....

    You're shopping in the store and warn the loaf of bread in the cart that there's a bump coming.

    Everytime your spouse snores you tell them to take a deep breath.

    You can braid your EKG, Pulse/OX, and BP lines simply by applying them to the patient.

    You snicker at floor orders for Morphine 2mg q6h.

    A doc's order to give 30 and 30 is considered complete.

    You can prime and program a PCA faster than most folks can fix a cup of coffee.

    BTW, you're a night PACU nurse if you consider coffee one of the basic food groups.
  2. Aug 23, '07 by
    good ones ashiker96!
    (the bread one cracked me up)
    KaroSnowQueen likes this.
  3. Aug 24, '07 by
    The floor nurse calmly says, so "is this your only patient"after you have been put on hold for 30 minutes and held the patient already for an hour because they supposedly didn't have a bed but one miraculously opened up after shift change.:angryfire Yeah as if we have no other patients in the PACU.

    Or you hear this on call and holding the patient, t"hanks for holding them so I could take my break." I know breaks are important for nurses, but ideally shouldn't the patient get back to the floor when they are ready so family can see them.

    Love the bump line, I always find myself ready to warn an empty cart that there is a bump coming.
  4. Aug 24, '07 by
    A couple more....

    "Must be nice having all your patients asleep"

    You spend 2 hours re-warming the patient, using blankets, warming machine and such only to have the ICU nurse(no offense ICU) strip the patient down to put all the monitors on and do a full assessment and want to turn the patient to do a skin check(all before they want to get report). Sigh.
  5. Aug 26, '07 by
    1. All PACU nurses do is empty drains, watch monitors, and ride elevators.

    2. "eternal hold" when you try to call report.

    3. When trying to call report, nurse replies.... "I didn't even know I was getting a patient!!!!" Well duh, you have an empty bed don't you?

    4. Moving help......... HA HA HA!!!! What a joke!!!!
  6. Sep 4, '07 by
    Don't you just love being oh hold to give report to a nurse while she/he is at lunch, and you haven't even had a break for hours and hours?
    Hopecascade likes this.
  7. Sep 4, '07 by
    You've contemplated putting in your own Foley because that's the only way you're going to get to pee during your shift.
    miss_vegemite likes this.
  8. Feb 22, '09 by
    Oh pt. has a history of post op n/v, Anesthesia "I gave them 4 of Zofran in back"
    Awesome that'll work out great!

    Floor nurses that want the floor orders read to them for every last detail even though Im on my way to hand them the chart!

    Pt woke up combative in the OR, anesthesia gives versed and THEN brings them to me in the PACU!

    other pacu nurses that are conveniently in the bathroom when OR calls to bring the next pt. Thought we were supposed to rotate, or even better pacu nurses that take 2 hours to recover b/c nurse waits an hour to start medicating a 10/10 pain.

    My favorite is the so called "report" you get from the OR nurse about the patient especially at the end "oh and the pt. is hep. c positive" Could you have said that first!!!

    Vomiting has ensued, anesthesia orders to give another 4 of Zofran! Never has this drug worked in stopping the vomit!

    I think I say in through your nose out through your mouth 600 times a day!

    Can you cough for me?
  9. Apr 1, '09 by
    If you have ever told a pt "yes, I know that is yours, but I am resposible for it"
  10. Apr 5, '09 by
    You wonder why the CRNA's,who are supposed to have more education than you, bring a pt in without even so much as 2L via NC and yell at you to "give them some oxygen" and their sats in the low 80's. And you get a look like come on stupid. ***

    The outpatient department gets upset at you because you bring a pt over with pain rated 2 out of 10 and ask, did you even give them anything, but if someone comes over a little drowsy, they ask , well how much did you give them.

    When your husband says you say "take a deep breath" in your sleep.

    You wonder what do those OR nurses do with those statlocks that come with the foleys.
    mustanggirl likes this.