PACU Hours

meandragonbrett · Oct 17, 2013

There are no typical pacu hours. Some are staffed 24/7. Some are open M-F 7am-2300 and all other kinds of variations.

Editorial Team / Admin · Oct 17, 2013

Really depends on the type of facility. I also work at a level 2 trauma center, and our PACU is staffed with a large number of nurses between 8 am and 1130 pm. There is one nurse in house on 3rd shift, with two additional nurses on call. They are both called in for any peds cases, cases where the patient needs critical care post-op, and any time there may be more than one patient in PACU. One will get called in for any case where the patient does not need critical care, and they will rotate between the two if there is more than one case during the night. We've had some nights where we're almost as busy as we are on day shift- roll one patient out of the OR, roll another in. Also staff for weekends- even though we don't do elective cases, there are plenty of people coming in through the ER who can't wait for Monday. We run two full rooms all day and have several PACU nurses in, although I believe there are some weekend only folks.

You should ask your questions about available shifts during the interview- we have 8, 10, and 12 hours shifts. Also find out about the call requirements- some places require a rather short response time (20 minutes from the time you answer your phone/get the page).