Post Op Admissions During Change of Shift

[All4Seasons]

Hi,

Pacu nurse here wondering if I can have some feedback on how things work in your unit with respect to post op admissions while the night shift is getting their report. Does PACU hold on to the pts in PACU as a courtesy to the floor,or are you expected to take the admissions when ever they are ready to be discharged from PACU?

Our unit holds on to the cases,BUT we have to speed up the flow through PACU and we're looking at revising our policy.

Could you let me know the size of your hospital? whether you are a trauma centre? Thanks!

[cjcalimer]

We are a large, level one trauma, inter-city university hospital (I think like 800 beds??). Our hospital has a first call policy, meaning you must take report on the first call. There is no grace period given for change of shift. I know this is done for patient flow, but as a nurse it's very frustrating. It seems as if the report is frequently "held" until the change of shift resulting in most of our patients coming just before or just after nurses are coming and going. It's really not safe for patients from our perspective. We have had 5 post-op patients rolling up to the floor within 15 minutes of each other. Regardless, we make it work although we frequently beg for even a 10 minutes before and ten minutes after window.