Ambulatory Surgery?

Day Surgery?

Good assessment skills for starters. In my hospital it's not a unit that hires new grads. Usually ask for five years recent surgical floor experience and will often take you with two years.

First patients start showing up at 0500 and are waiting for the doors to open at 0530.

Admission paperwork and vitals, glucose and other bloodwork if required (ecg and bloodwork should have been done in the community but there are always those special snowflakes that won't go and do it). IV start. Educate, reassure. Send to the OR.

Return from the OR, vitals, blood sugars, dressing checks, medicate, educate, discharge. Rinse and repeat.

Good organizational skills and assessment skills are mandatory.

Our ambulatory care is different. It is connected to the ER and they do dressings and stitches and assist the doctors in trauma situations. They do hire new grads here(I only know this because 3 of the girls who went through the program I am in are working there right out of grad).

I have worked in an ASC and Fiona has it spot-on. The only thing I would add is that it is FAST! Patient in bay #3 is still quite groggy from their conscious sedation? Better go shake them awake because that bay is needed for the next patient. You really need to get patients in and out of there without feeling like they have been run through on a conveyor belt. Not always easy, but the days go by very fast.