Considering a day surgery position

brownbook · Dec 30, 2012

Pros

No nights, no weekends, no holidays, no on call issues.

The patients are only there for 1 to 2 hour prior to surgery, then 1 - 2 hours after surgery. No long term extended stays where patients, family, and nurses start getting tired and irritated with each other.

Staff is less stressed, patients are bottom line healthy enough to tolerate day surgery, no high pressure seriously ill patients, medications, or treatments to deal with. You don't get any unexpected admits. Patients are scheduled several days to weeks in advance. Come in as scheduled. (Okay a few rare, same day add ons maybe.)

You usually have time to interact with your patient and their family, do patient teaching, get to know them and their family.

Everyone, patients, staff, family is usually relaxed and even happy!!!!! It is an easy, low stress, job. Patients are usually happy and relieved to finally to get their hernia out or bunion fixed etc.

Cons

You lose your skilled nursing CSU, NICU skills. But any area of nursing you work you gain some skills and knowledge and lose other skills and knowledge.

Can't think of any other cons!!!!!!!

meandragonbrett · Dec 30, 2012

My only con for ASC/Ambulatory surgery is that I am absolutely bored to tears. Our patients don't even come in with airways into PACU! It's super easy though. Mostly electronic paper pushing and occasional IV narcotics in PACU.

No weekends, no holidays, no call. We DO staff until 2200 though and are generally there. My ASC is physically attached to the hospital so we do a mix of inpatient cases and ambulatory cases so it's a nice variety.

It's low stress but somedays it feels like I am on an assembly line in factory.

iluvmusak · Dec 31, 2012

As mentioned, no weekends/holidays/calls is a big plus. I know my workday schedule about a month in advance, however since the surgery schedules aren't finalized until the last minute, I don't know my times until the afternoon the day before.

The ASC that I work at is very fast paced, and therefore can be very stressful. Get 'em in and get 'em out fast - usually after 1 to 1-1/2 hours. We do alot of ortho procedures so there is equipment to deal with and peripheral nerve blocks. Just like hospitals, management is trying to do more with less so often we are short staffed, so at times you could have between 1 to 3 patients, and it becomes hard to get the patients out fast. There's a lot of patient teaching with the families. Generally we feel so rushed that there's not a lot of time to sit around and chit-chat with the family - wish there was more time. Also, at times I feel that we have to push patients out too early. It really does feel like an assembly line at time.

We do a lot of IV narcotics. Occasionally patients to arrive in the PACU with oral airways. We have also have a few codes. The scariest thing I've had to deal with was a 3 year old coding after a tonsillectomy.

All-in-all I like working in outpatient surgery. I flip-flop between pre-op and PACU. As mentioned before, the patients are generally healthy and friendly. It's nice to see them leave "fixed" after their surgery. The environment is not as depressing as working in a hospital.

pamgr · Dec 31, 2012

As mentioned, no weekends/holidays/calls is a big plus. I know my workday schedule about a month in advance, however since the surgery schedules aren't finalized until the last minute, I don't know my times until the afternoon the day before.
The ASC that I work at is very fast paced, and therefore can be very stressful. Get 'em in and get 'em out fast - usually after 1 to 1-1/2 hours. We do alot of ortho procedures so there is equipment to deal with and peripheral nerve blocks. Just like hospitals, management is trying to do more with less so often we are short staffed, so at times you could have between 1 to 3 patients, and it becomes hard to get the patients out fast. There's a lot of patient teaching with the families. Generally we feel so rushed that there's not a lot of time to sit around and chit-chat with the family - wish there was more time. Also, at times I feel that we have to push patients out too early. It really does feel like an assembly line at time.
We do a lot of IV narcotics. Occasionally patients to arrive in the PACU with oral airways. We have also have a few codes. The scariest thing I've had to deal with was a 3 year old coding after a tonsillectomy.
All-in-all I like working in outpatient surgery. I flip-flop between pre-op and PACU. As mentioned before, the patients are generally healthy and friendly. It's nice to see them leave "fixed" after their surgery. The environment is not as depressing as working in a hospital.

Overall it sounds great! I know the pay varies by what part of the country you work in but would it be a big drop after working day shift in a hospital ICU?

pamgr · Dec 31, 2012

As mentioned, no weekends/holidays/calls is a big plus. I know my workday schedule about a month in advance, however since the surgery schedules aren't finalized until the last minute, I don't know my times until the afternoon the day before.
The ASC that I work at is very fast paced, and therefore can be very stressful. Get 'em in and get 'em out fast - usually after 1 to 1-1/2 hours. We do alot of ortho procedures so there is equipment to deal with and peripheral nerve blocks. Just like hospitals, management is trying to do more with less so often we are short staffed, so at times you could have between 1 to 3 patients, and it becomes hard to get the patients out fast. There's a lot of patient teaching with the families. Generally we feel so rushed that there's not a lot of time to sit around and chit-chat with the family - wish there was more time. Also, at times I feel that we have to push patients out too early. It really does feel like an assembly line at time.
We do a lot of IV narcotics. Occasionally patients to arrive in the PACU with oral airways. We have also have a few codes. The scariest thing I've had to deal with was a 3 year old coding after a tonsillectomy.
All-in-all I like working in outpatient surgery. I flip-flop between pre-op and PACU. As mentioned before, the patients are generally healthy and friendly. It's nice to see them leave "fixed" after their surgery. The environment is not as depressing as working in a hospital.

And BTW, thanks so much for the thorough responses.

kim hastings · Sep 4, 2013

I work in an off-site children's surgery center. I LOVE it!!! Best career move ever!!!! I came from a NICU of 12 years. Before that adult cardiac stepdown for 2 years. I have been here going on 12 years now, and I plan to retire from here!! I just returned for my BSN but that's just for my satisfaction. Good luck!! Don't worry about skills lost. You gain so much more!!!!