summeroflov

I don't see why it should be anyone's business to ask. Do they ask about other bodily defects? If so, that's quite rude. That said, I've had a few patients ask about my scars (which are more recent than at 17) and I told them that I have cats. Because I do.

Oy, I hate that. Its like a Dr. who has never given birth telling the woman that it doesn't really hurt... um, yes, it does! I tell my patients to let me know if the pain is start to get to the point when it is not tolerable. I never say "if you start having pain" because you're right, it is not reasonable to expect a major ortho/spinal/neuro pt. to not feel any pain at all. From a patient perspective as well, I was on a spine/neuro floor as patient myself last summer. (It was found that I have a severely large sacralmeningeal cyst, aka Tarlov Cyst.) Its eroding my sacrum. Anyway, I can tell you that even with Dilaudid my pain did not go away. I'm awaiting surgery still because the surgeon is completely backed up on elective cases, and no pain medication ever fully takes away the pain, it just dulls it enough to where its tolerable. I expect its much the same with other pts.

Slightly above the minimum stated by BarbRN62. Starting my 2nd year of PACU, but previously worked Med-Surg as well as Hospice.

Basically in our PACU if the older nurses were "holding" patients, our charge RNs would be on to it. One of their responsibilities is to kind of 'round' on the unit (more or less the RNs) and ensure that the flow is smooth. If a patient who came in fairly stable with no adverse events in the PACU course is still with us after 1.5 or 2 hrs, red flags go up. The charge RN has the final say in calling for a bed or calling for phase 2 transport, and our (seasoned) charge RNs wouldn't put up with any of that BS. But basically our rotation is determined by a)Nurse and Teams, as some above posters have said. No nurse gets 2 patients if one Nurse doesn't have ANY patients yet. b) Acuity- If there are two patients from minor procedures and two patients from major, high acuity procedures we mix them up. The RN shouldn't have two heavy acuity while the other gets the "easier" patients. 3) Children under the age of 2 are always 1:1.

I was just curious as how to large your hospitals were, and how many ORs you have/how many PACU beds? I work for a large Level 1 Trauma hospital (very busy) and we have 17 main ORs, and 20 PACU slots all in are in use unless the hospital is packed and we have to hold cases until beds open up). We also have an ambulatory surgery down the hall who use the same ORs, but has a separate recovery space. Our maximum patient load per nurse is 2, so on the busiest days (usually Tues and Weds) we have 10 RNs on staff (including the charge RN); a secretary; 4 techs that do stocking/transport/etc. and a float RN who is either assigned to us or the Ambulatory unit; and does relief for breaks.

I agree txg159- the fact that the PACU is so different than the rest of the hospital/the floors is one of the things I love about it. When I worked on the floor I could not say that I felt 100% confident that all the nurses on the floor could handle an emergency situation as best as possible. I can say that about our PACU because I've SEEN almost everyone handle and emergency and all my fellow nurses in the PACU are so competent. Heck, even our techs who do our stocking/transprting are great at anticipating what to get and bring to the bedside during an emergency, or who to call or what to cover. I love bragging about my PACU...when I'm not at work wanting get the heck out!

I should clarify that my hospital is a HUGE Level 1 trauma center, so we have the space and staff for dedicate OB-Gyn operating/recovery rooms. I can understand that it must be different in hospitals that are smaller.

All c-sections unless done under general anesthesia (extremely rare) are recovered on the L&D floor. All the OB ORs are on the L&D floor.

I agree, diabetic acidosis comes on more suddenly and with a much higher blood sugar. Without immediate treatment of DKA, the outcome will not be good. As others said, there are other types of acidosis. In addition to being a nurse, I am also a type 1 diabetic. I went into DKA once due to insulin pump failure. Mine was a classic case of diabetic ketoacidosis- admitting blood sugar of 570, "large" ketones, dehydration and hyperkalemia and extremely low potassium..

We (both the main OR and PACU) handle our own codes. Anesthesia is paged to the bedside internally and one is always available immediately to handle critical situations, along with all our ACLS/PALS certified RNs.

At our hospital phase 2 is only for patients being discharged to home. All main OR patients (with the exception of ICU patients) go to phase 1 (main recovery room) until they meet the requirements of stability. Then inpatients go to the floor and outpatients go to phase 2 to eat/drink, go to the bathroom and get up and ambulate before discharge to home. We also have am ambulatory surgical center for minor cases which operates completely separate from the main OR.

Ugh, I don't know but the same thing goes on at my hospital. I was hospitalized recently (ER to MICU to general floor) and a few nurses thanked me for being so patient and respectful. I just said "I'm a nurse too." and they knew I got it. Especially since the ER was packed with flu patients. Though I was really too sick to bug anyone in the ER as I was in DKA due to insulin pump failure. On the floor I heard people putting on the call light for ice chips though, and I just shook my head because it was so familiar.