Siss

Every area of nursing has wonderful, empathetic nurses, and unfortunately, every area has nurses who will do as little as possible. We are all "real nurses," no matter what areas we work in. I have been a PACU nurse for many years. I am interested in what other specialties do. That is why I am on this thread. Every human being has something emotional or "mental" that we have to cope with. Nurses in all areas should compassionately deal with these issues. People waking up from surgery can be frightened or depressed. What I am trying to say is, don't let anyone, ever, tell you that you are not "a real nurse." Dealing with someone who is sick, & dealing with them compassionately, is what nursing is all about.

Looks like this nurse would finally give up and quit nursing:lol2:

This is common. I believe it is ASPAN Standards:clown:

We use our Aldrete score as criteria for discharge. We use a paper system. but if we ever go computerized, we will incorporate it into the system. It may be a guideline, but it is still an important tool.

We used to use the nursing supervisor as our back up nurse when we came in on call, but we have gone to having two people on call and both come in, no matter what the case or how many.

In the PACU I work in, there is quite a lot of lifting. We are constantly pulling patients up in bed to raise the HOB and increase respiratory effort. Turning and repositioning as well as transporting require good body mechanics.

We start the PCA in our PACU. It seems to help relieve pain sooner that way.

I wouldn't work anywhere else.

I work in a 13 bed PACU (appx. 400 bed hosp.). We have two PACU nurses come out on call anytime a patient is in PACU. This has forced to have more staff, which has been a good thing, but we do take a lot of call. We all like having two nurses. It feels more secure in the middle of the night after the OR crew has left and it is dark down the hall in the OR suite.

If you need a reference book, the PeriAnesthesia Nursing Core Curriculum ed. Donna M. DeFazio Quinn and Lois Schick which is published by the American Society of PeriAnesthesa Nurses is an excellent reference book. I used it to study for CPAN as well as the ASPAN Standards of Care. It helped me a lot.

There is a different kind of stress than med/surg, but if you go to PACU don't think you will have a stress-free environment to work in. You need excellent airway management skills as well as some critical care skills. Most PACU's require nurses to take call and ours requires lots of call. Although having said this, I would not go anywhere else.

How about "PACU Nursing - it's not for wimps."

Your situation sounds horrible. God bless you. We don't hold pts. overnight. But then again, we barely have the staff to recover surgical patients during the day. If our oncall staff had to come out to watch overnighters, and heaven forbid, nonsurgical patients, and then work the next day, there would be mass rioting and probably no PACU nurses.

I have read several stories about seeing nurses in the hospital who turned out to be ghosts. What I would like to know is why anyone would want to spend their afterlife @ work??

There is nothing, and I mean nothing, to be ashamed of by becoming a nurse. Ours is one of the most trusted professions. Even above MD's and especially above lawyers. A good nurse must be intelligent and motivated, as well as, compassionate and sacrificing. We are closer to being God's hands than anyone on this earth.