jax0622

I have worked at 2 PACU's. One of them we had to wear scrubs out of the scrub machine just like the OR staff which you turn back in at the end of the day to be hospital landered. At the one I work at now, we wear hospital/OR scrubs too, but are allowed to launder them ourselves as long as we are washing them above a certain water temperature- a lot of people do this b/c certain sizes are frequently unavailable and if you rely on what's stocked, you end up wearing too big or too small of scrubs. Unfortunately, the reason certain sizes run low is probably b/c we all have stocks of our own so its a catch 22, but it seems to work out ok in the end...every so often the have a "bring back your scrubs day"

I am looking for information or resources to develop our PACU orientation program which is severely lacking. We are frequently short staffed and unable to provide adequate orientations to new PACU nurses. In fact, I have stopped precepting new RN's to our unit b/c I don't feel I am given the tools/time/ and resources to do so properly. Our new PACU RN's are being oriented for a day or so as if they are travelers w/ PACU experience when in fact they have NO PACU experience and are frequently coming from the floor environment. Our managers are swamped and say they will help us but nothing is being done. We have an OR educator responsible for PACU who is never around and has absolutely no PACU experience so of course her priority is to the OR. I have spoken to the higher ups abt the need for a PACU educator or a better system and no one seems to realize what a great disservice to employees a bad/inadequate orientation is until several months after hiring and we realize the new nurses do not know what should have been taught to them during their orientation! Worth mentioning is we do take care of ICU patients fairly frequently and most of the staff does not have ICU experience. Our staff has no classes during the orientation process at all...Does anyone have experience with educational needs assessment of staff or any suggestions or orientation programs in place that they are willing to share? Thanks!!!