New Grad-Recovery Room Position

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As a new grad who has an interest in working the recovery room what advice can you offer as to the best approach of reaching this goal?

What can I be focusing on and studying to prepare for this position?

What is the best advice you can offer for working in a recovery room as an RN?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and help!

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Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

As an experienced recovery room nurse, I cannot advocate for new nurses to enter this area. It is incredibly fast-paced and you really have to know your stuff. There are emergencies galore on a daily basis and you have to intervene FAST. That means noticing a problem QUICKLY.

If you are going into it with a means of a support system that includes buddying up with someone for a long time--suggest 6 months MINIMUM--before going independent. That will also, of course, depend on how fast you accumulate knowledge and how quick you are mentally.

My suggestion is to go to ICU for about 6 months to a year so you can recognize distress, issues, etc., because you will be giving people who are anesthesized major opiates and these people don't have a secure airway.

Bottom line: NOT a good place for a new grad.

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Specializes in ICU, PACU.

I work in the recovery room currently. New grads do well with a good orientation in the recovery room. You need good supportive nurses working near you and very supportive management. You can do this if you like working in a fast-paced environment and focus on ABC's primarily and surgical assessment.

Purchase the Perianesthesia Nursing Core Curriculum book and the Perianesthesia nursing "A critical Care Approach". This is a good start. Know your anesthesia drugs. Pulmonary assessment is very crucial. Know how to be able to insert oral airways, do proper jaw thrusts/chin lifts and recognize bronchospasm, laryngospasm and negative pulmonary edema. I am not sure if you will be doing pediatrics, but they often have laryngospasms. Recognizing dysrythmias is also crucial.

The great thing about working in the recovery room, every day is a new patient load with new experiences. It is an exciting job and very rewarding.

I started in the CVICU as a new grad and did very well, and so did my patients.

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I would recommend starting out in a high acuity ICU that accepts ventilated patients straight from the OR. This would benefit you by providing good critical care experience but you would also get the experience of recovering a patient who has a protected airway. Not everybody in the PACU has a protected airway when they come out of the OR. Airways can be gone in the blink of an eye and then you're patient is asystole secondary to hypoxia.

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Go straight to the PACU, if you can. It doesn't make sense to go into an area you're not interested. If you go to the ICU you will learn things ICU related - that won't help you in the PACU. Learn and thrive where YOU want to go. Will it be stressful with a lot to learn? Oh, yes! But the good news it you won't be left alone until they know you are ready. The other nurses will help you out, too. The PACU is awesome because the anesthesiologist is right next door. You can always yell for help.

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I work in a Surgical ICU. We get our patients straight from the OR.

If you cannot find a PACU position as a new grad, consider SICU to gain the skills.

In PACU, there is much the same post op interventions, but they happen faster. A PACU nurse once told me that they get their inpatients recovered and out in an hour. That is a fast pace for all the labs, pain control, frequent monitoring, and paperwork to get done.

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Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.
Go straight to the PACU, if you can. It doesn't make sense to go into an area you're not interested. If you go to the ICU you will learn things ICU related - that won't help you in the PACU. Learn and thrive where YOU want to go. Will it be stressful with a lot to learn? Oh, yes! But the good news it you won't be left alone until they know you are ready. The other nurses will help you out, too. The PACU is awesome because the anesthesiologist is right next door. You can always yell for help.

You are mistaken. I worked ICU including NICU for 15 years. ALL my PACU skills are reinforced because I came from ICU. AND you can tell the RR nurses who've had ICU versus those who've never worked ICU. If you get a patient tubed (say the ICU is backed up and you have no bed) on pressors and PA lines, you are in deep trouble if you don't know how to manage them. And in the RR, you NEVER know what's coming in through that door....that "just a port" or "just a knee" can turn into something major....like a code.

Again, I do not recommend a NEW GRAD straight out of school into a high-acuity, heavy RR area.

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Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.
I work in a Surgical ICU. We get our patients straight from the OR.

If you cannot find a PACU position as a new grad, consider SICU to gain the skills.

In PACU, there is much the same post op interventions, but they happen faster. A PACU nurse once told me that they get their inpatients recovered and out in an hour. That is a fast pace for all the labs, pain control, frequent monitoring, and paperwork to get done.

Not to mention, fluid resuscitation, post-op nausea and vomiting, AND mandatory orders. Oh, and don't forget the anxious, and sometimes crying, and fainting family members.

Not only are you fast, but assertive as well or else you never get your job done.

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Thanks for all of your suggestions and help. I am actually signed up to take a few courses- Basic EKG, Pharmacology for ACLS, and a 2 day ACLS course while I have some time off and waiting for the interview process.

Some have told me to wait and let my employer pay for the courses and time, however I love to learn, miss school, and thought why not go ahead and keep the learning process going and it will never hurt to have these courses for any area of work.

Thanks again for all of the advice and suggestions.

Maybe the trend is to hire new grads, several in my class have accepted positions in the OR, ER, ICU, PACU and many were told they prefer new grads to train in their specific hospital protocol rather than have an experienced come in and tell them how to change this or you are doing this and that wrong scenarios, as I questioned new grads in some of these positions. I have been pleasantly surprised to see hospitals in many locations are hiring and allowing new grads into these positions!!

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Many good points here but I'd also like to add the fact that PACU often has shifts where there are only two of you (off-shifts, slow schedule days) or if you work on call your second nurse might be the OR nurse who have a completely different set of skills that do not match managing a PACU patient in trouble.

You are it to spot signs of trouble and intervene quickly while the OR nurse is calling anesthesia stat and basically be an extra set of hands.

The ideal choice IMHO for the new grad is to start in a good sized SICU where there are experienced ICU RN's around you all day willing to pass on their skills and wisdom for at least 2 years, then try for a PACU position.

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People here keep saying how critical PACU is. Yes, it is critical. But New Grads are trained to handle these patients. It's doable. One great thing about PACU is that you get them and then send them out of there! There is basically no contiuity of care so if you get a complainer you don't have to deal with them as much. What I absolultely loved about working in the PACU is that if a patient was going sour, the anesthesiologist was RIGHT THERE.

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Specializes in Acute Care Cardiac, Education, Prof Practice.

Our PACU requires a minimum of one year ICU experience.

Tait

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