hot flasher

I have worked Phase II for 23 years and love it. It does require good assessment and critical thinking skills and, depending on whether you are in a freestanding setting or a hospital based setting, some degree of critical care skills, as well. I think the thing I love most is that you will inevitably have busy days, but every busy day is new and different busy day...not the same patients day in and day out. It requires excellent teaching skills and a huge focus on patient satisfaction. You have a short time to make an impression and to educate and care for your patient and prepare them to care for themselves at home. Also, with the variability of surgery schedules, you do a lot of smoothing things over for reasons you did not create...the surgeon is late, the cases are running late, the patient has been waiting for 4 hours, none of which you have any control over, but it is you that has to appease the patient and their family! My staff are all ACLS and PALS trained and many are crosstrained to cover in the Phase I PACU. A few also help out in Pre-Anesthesia testing. In our unit, we admit the patients and prepare them for surgery as well as do their postop care and discharge them home. I have seen a transition over the years to caring for patients with many more co-morbid conditions as outpatients than ever before, as well as doing procedures as outpatients that previously patients were kept at least overnight for, so the education piece is critical. It is a very fulfilling, fast paced environment for the right nurse, however, and I would encourage you to at least explore the option. I don't think you will be sorry!

Are you referring to an endotracheal tube or an oral/nasal airway? In our PACU, only anesthesia providers remove endotracheal tubes, but the nursing staff can remove oral or nasal airways that have been temporarily placed to maintain a patent airway.

I work in an Ambulatory Surgery/GI Lab unit and we see patients frequently with the same situation as your mom. We almost always arrange for appt. with the surgeon before they are discharged same day, so that is not at all unusual. There is always a risk of obstruction, but unless the "mass" is totally occluding the lumen, things somehow seem to find a way to get through! No one in our area does this type of surgery laparoscopically, but I'm sure they do in some areas of the country. I would be sure the surgeon has done this many times before, or I would elect to go with an open approach. Sounds like, based on the location of the mass, that a resection is likely, no need for colostomy, unless there is more going on than is obvious. Depending on the stage/metastasis, chemo +/or radiation may be recommended, as well. I have seen many patients your mom's age successfully undergo treatment for colon cancer. Best of luck and be sure to keep asking questions until you are satisfied!!