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I appreciate your advice. Thank you!

"I would address this with management." It has been addressed. They always give us some version of It's Always Been Done Like This. Very frustrating.

Hi Everyone. Do any other PACU nurses work alone on call? I work at a very small hospital and when the OR staff leaves after a surgery, in the evening or middle of the night, the on call PACU nurse is by herself. The PACU is isolated and no one could hear you if you shouted. I've never heard of this at any other hospital I've worked at. When I was a circulator at a larger hospital I was required to stay with the PACU nurse (if she was alone) until she could transfer the patient. This smaller hospital says the recovery nurse could call the house supervisor if necessary. That wouldn't make me feel better if my patient was in trouble. I wondered if this is common in other places?

Thanks very much!

After 10 years in the OR I'm excited to be able to cross-train into PACU soon. I don't, however, have any ICU experience. What would you veteran PACU nurses advise that I study?

No offense intended.

Clearly you're a special person "It's not my problem" is not my way either, which is why I've spoken up in staff meetings and to the manager, multiple times. Buy I have no managerial experience so am unsure of what processes to recommend for performance improvement. Don't think they need to reinvent the wheel. I'm sure there are systems out there to eliminate some of these problems, but I've been giving the benefit of the doubt for six months, and now I have reason to believe that laziness and lack of work ethic might be involved.

Lol true.

You are soooo right. It is exhausting and I'm the one catching mistakes so they're afraid of me.

I was an OR circulator for a hospital with six ORs, for nine years. I left town for a while and when I came back I had the opportunity to work at a small specialty surgery center. The similar pay, no nights/weekends/call made me say yes to the new job. My problem is, six months later, that despite my speaking to the manager, speaking in staff meetings, and speaking to the staff, errors keep being made. The serious kind. Wrong site on consent forms (signed by three different staff members by the time I find it). Wrong name on chart or on schedule. Wrong side said in time-out. Some of the staff and the docs seem very casual about this (and about their sterile conscience), and don't seem to see the need to do better. I get the feeling I should shut the **** up. I'm afraid this is an accident waiting to happen, and I don't really want to be a part of it. I have started looking for another job. Am I over reacting??

I've just started working at an outpatient ophthalmology surgery after 8 years in the hospital OR. I'm shocked at the lack of sterile conscience and casual attitude about counting sharps when they are used. Is there any way a surgery center might have different rules about these things vs. a hospital?? I'm just trying to get my head around what these people are thinking. Their own policies are so vague and simple, they don't even say when to count, who counts etc.. The tech looked shocked and asked me to repeat myself when I insisted on counting the needles at the end of a case. The nurses actually don't cover their hair at the end of the day in the OR when the last patient has left. I have been told to do many wrong things like: push a (sterile) draped stand up against a wall, pick up a syringe out of a sterile field, shake it above the field (with my bare hands), use it as an eye dropper, and return it to the corner of the field. Lots of things like that. A LVN zips in when I'm not looking and pours meds for the tech. I have no idea what they did but it's my license on the line? Please don't tell me to talk to the manager. She is the one who set it up like this, is pressuring me to conform to it, and has been there for 12 years. The docs don't seem to care. I might lose my job over these issues. I can't do what I know is wrong. Am I over reacting? How do I find out what the actual regs are if they are not supplied to me??