Leaving ED for PACU

Gee wiz.....with your credentials/experience/background I could be asking you for tips! I'm to embarrassed to post any lame comments or ideas!

Nice of you to think you might need some tips or suggestions, obviously you aren't going into this with the....I already know everything...attitude.

Oh stop! I already learned 2 new things during a shadow experience: Decadron for nausea prevention & Quease-Ease aromatherapy for nausea relief in the PACU environment. I'm researching the Decadron further, I had never heard of that use.

Anyone have any experience and tips for using HSM? (Horizon Surgical Manager). That will be totally new to me, we currently use Horizon Expert Documentation and Horizon Emergency Care in the ED. This HSM is integrated with the bedside monitors to autopopulate the vital signs, I'm very excited about that. I DESPISE entering q5min vital signs in the ED because it's all manual entry.

Also, I'm curious what do you all carry in your pockets? Being a PACU environment, the scrub options are obviously only hospital scrub machine, so pockets are limited. All the bedsides look well stocked, but I'm very used to my Aviator scrubs with cargo pockets in the ED, I literally had everything I needed in those pants. I will have to adjust to survive with just a couple of pens, flushes, and alcohol preps. I don't think I could wear a fanny pack, I've seen some nurses wear them but I just can't, I can't get past the dorky '90s tourist stereotype ;-)

As you said the bedsides are well stocked. All I carry in my pockets are pens (we are not using computers) and bandage scissors.

Since you mentioned nausea medications, we sometime use scopalamine patches. They can take 4 hours before they start to work so ideally they are placed in pre-op or even earlier.