Do your PACU RN's also staff your Pre-Op area?

Specialties PACU

Published

I work in a Level 1 trauma center and our PACU and Pre-op nurses do not float from one area to the other. I understand in outpatient/daystay settings it is usual for staff to perform both roles, but wondering if there are other inpatient areas that do this also.

Thanks.

Okay, not sure of your exact question?

In our out patient surgery clinic setting many, but not all, staff float between pre-op and recovery. I love to float and am not sure why more co-workers don't float back and forth. Some say their IV skills are too rusty. I think a lot of it is just the fish out of water feeling of floating to a different area.

My first out patient surgery job was in an acute care hospital where we admitted "out-pt" cases and patients being admitted to the hospital. We all floated to pre-op and recovery, but recovery was two separate phases. Even same day surgery patients spent 30 - 60 minutes in PACU with 2 to 1 nursing then to our area for phase 2 of recovery.

Other in patient areas of acute care hospitals that float staff a lot? I am out of the acute care hospital setting but know in the past it was always talked about, hoped for, planned for, that nurses would, could, float within a similar cluster of units. However most nurses hate floating and drag their heels.

ASC RNs float pre/pacu. Main OR do not. I hate preop. I don't mind floating but I am nothing more than an electronic paper pusher as our anesthesia staff start their own IVs.

Just to clarify. I work in the main PACU at a level 1 trauma center. We see mostly inpatient surgeries, with some daystay. The hospital has a separate daysurgery unit that handles most of the same day surgeries. That unit's staff floats between pre and postop. Just wondering how other main inpatient PACU's handle the staffing. Our pre-op and PACU staff are separate and do not float between units.

Specializes in Critical Care, Clinical Documentation Specialist.

I am a nursing student in a tech position and get to work between both pre-op and PACU on the inpatient side of a University hospital. The nurses there work only pre-op or PACU, not both. They are like two separate groups and even do hours different. The pre-op nurses can work 8, 10 or occasionally 12s, while the PACU nurses strictly work 12s.

Specializes in NICU, PACU, Pedi Home Health.

Yes, we staff both, we also staff/sedate for Endo. We are a 120 bed Community Hospital with 9 OR's and an Endo room.

Specializes in PACU, presurgical testing.

At my acute care hospital, nurses in the phase 1 PACU do post-op care for everyone coming out of the OR. We also do the pre-op for patients who are already inpatients. Phase 2 nurses do a.m. admits' pre-ops and outpatient surgery pre-ops, and they also do phase 2 recovery for outpatients (after they leave us in the PACU) and then discharge them.

At another local hospital, pre-op and phase 1 recovery are covered by a lot of the same people; a nurse may come in and do pre-ops for a few hours, then switch to phase 1 recovery when the pts start coming out of the OR. I don't know who does phase 2 there, though.

+ Add a Comment