Do you recover c-sections under general?

[Pipsy, BSN, MSN, DNP, RN, CRNA]

Our PACU (in a community hospital) recovers c-sections that are done under general anesthesia, but regional/spinal is "recovered" up in OB. I am trying to figure out the rationale for this. Is it because they were intubated for the case? How many of you guys do this? Or do the OB nurses recover all c-sections? Let me know!

[Just-floored]

I'm an L/D nurse and we recover our c-sections that have a spinal or epidural block but for general anesthesia the PACU nurses recover them. I'm not sure of the rationale because I am unfamiliar with what is needed to be done to recover someone who has been under general anesthesia.

[brownbook]

Generally speaking, ha ha, general anesthesia may produce deep, long lasting, sedation. A patient needs to be closely monitored to ensure their airway remains patent.

In addition if general anesthesia is required for a C-section there may have been a medical complication. More anesthesia than ideally preferred may have had to be given.

Hopefully your general anesthesia C-section moms are coming to you pretty much awake and alert. But they still require close observation for 30 to 60 minutes.

[offlabel]

There's more to PACU nursing than watching someone wake up. Post op bleeding and other surgical complications that have nothing to do with the anesthetic are part of the reasons why there are specialist nurses in the immediate post surgical period.

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

All of our c-sections are done by the OR staff and recovered in PACU, whether general or not. L&D attempted to take over circulating the c-sections (which occur in the OR and not L&D) and it was an utter disaster.

[Just-floored]

On my L&D unit we circulate for our c-sections unless the floor is just crazy busy and we don't have the staff. I like it because if my baby crumps following the section I have another NRP trained RN right there.

[HeySis, BSN, RN]

We rarely do C-sections in our OR... if we do, its because something is going terribly wrong. They are done up on L&D (some of our anesthesiologist don't like it, they don't feel the nurses have the experience needed in a crisis and because the baby is allowed to stay in recovery and family is invited in... and they feel it's just too much for one person to monitor. In the end I think the rationale was the patient experience.