hello from australia!

i work on the wards, so i can't chat about pacu, but welcome to allnurses! from a fellow aussie :)

Welcome! What size hospital do you work in? I currently work in a 12 bed PACU that will soon double in size. We take care of every imaginable case except for open hearts or any pt that has been on cardiopulmonary bypass, which go directly to the ICU. It is an exciting place. We usually have 2 patients to a nurse depending on acuity, what type of cases do you have and what is your census usually like. :)

Hello, from Missouri/USA. I work in a large Level One Trauma center here and our PACU has 21 slots that are BUSY all the time. We are a fast paced center taking all sorts of cases (Burn, General Surgery, GI, Ortho, Vascular, OB/GYN, Same Day, etc.). The only cases we do not recover are CABG/ pericardial windows, they go straight back to CCU. We have a really good group of nurses. Most of us had either ER or ICU experience before working PACU. I love the variety of challenges (ICU to same day). Keeps the old skills intact. Our unit is governed by Anesthesia, so all orders concerning patient care comes from them. Our shifts are either 8 or 12 hours, and we take turns doing call/holidays/weekends. I love PACU nursing and do not plan on changing anytime soon! I am currently studying to take the CPAN (Certified Perianesthesia Nurse) exam. Hope you enjoy the website and I would love to hear more about PACU nursing in your neck of the woods!

Hello from fellow aussie nurse!

I live and work in Cairns, Australia. We are a busy 6 theatre (soon to be 7) complex and do trauma, ortho, general, vascular, o&g, ENT, Opthalmology, urology... basically everything accept neuro and cardiac actually. But it is a great place to work, with no by-pass we see a lot of interesting stuff that we might not otherwise get to experience.

Dave