Practices for Caring for Late Phase II's

[MakeItRain]

Just curious to see what your facilities do to handle late phase II patients. Some places I've worked pre-op closes at 1600 and anything after that was handled by PACU staff, granted the day usually was winding down so there was time for this and the place I'm at now will keep pre-op nurses late for one phase II patient while PACU may spend 1.5-2 hours waiting for the last phase I patient. What is your protocol for this situation?

[Sassafras, BSN, RN]

Our phase II nurses will stay their entire shift if there are patients left to be discharged, meaning they don’t go home early. That being said, I do not expect them to stay late and accrue overtime for late patients. PACU takes over when their shift ends because we are staffed 24/7. On the flip side of that, our pre-op does take back up call to our PACU nurses. Theoretically, we could call them back in, but only if we needed additional help.

It’s hard for some people to understand the flow of PACU unless they have worked it. You could be completely dead one minute and slammed the next. We have no control of how long surgeries run and the arrival of our patients.  Overextending ourselves to absorb phase II patients is not always possible depending on what’s on the table in the back.