NancyBug

As a former ER nurse who also HATED Med Surg ICU (did my year and ran!!), I now work in PACU in the same hospital where I worked ER for the majority of my 25 + years as a nurse. I have found it to be a very wonderful change yet with many of the same challenges. I love the rapid turn over and the different patients everyday-although as we are aa Trauma Center, we do get many patients several times during their recovery. PACU's have advance warning of the number of patients they should have as there are very few surgeries that are not at least an hour from induction to arrival to us. Of course, there is still the unknown of how many of the patients will have airway problems, extended PACU stays and complications that no one anticipates. It is more predictable than ER but still with enough of the unknown factored in to keep you stimulated and you need to be competent and capable of caring for patients of all ages which your background has prepared you for. PACU's are very much as intense as ER's and a wonderful place to easily tansition to (but be prepared for the first patient you try to extubate vs ensuring that this does not occur because I was intimidated with the idea of removing the airway support vs doing everything I could to maintain it!)!

You would be doing the patients of many patients if you could have the nurses LISTEN to the noise THEY create in the area they are practicing!! As a PACU nurse in a large hospital, I am still stunned that many of the RN's I work with seem to think that because the patients are post anesthesia and sleepy, they are deaf......................I know I am a quiet person but the volume of our PACU is just overwhelming some days and I have not just gone through the trauma of surgery!! AND the topics are also quetionable. I work with wonderful, kind and compassionate nurses but many seem to think if they are not the caregiver of the patient then what they say and how loud it is said does not impact my patient.

ER nursing is challenging and a great place to understand what teamwork means. However, I can assure you after working 12 years in a Trauma Center, you should NOT choose the ER as a place to rest. .......... And NO, the ER is not a place for patients who lack common sense-especially at a Trauma Center. Yes, you do get the patients who have a complaint that is not emergent, the ER "regulars" and many nonemergent patients but this is a CRITICAL area for nurses who are skilled and knowledgable. If you transfer, expect to work just as hard as there is a sign outside the door that says "Emergency" and expect patients to walk through that door 24/7with their concept of what an emergency is-what is simple to you may be truly what non healthcare people consider an emergency. Triage requires that you respect and understand this. AND expect to see the very worst and the very best of patients, the simple and the very, very ill and also the dying.