Anonnurse316

I've worked pre op pacu all ortho and moving to a new surgery center that does a lot of different surgeries. Any helpful tips or things you should know for lots of ENT kids, general surgery, gyn, cataracts?

I've stuck every job out for a year. It looks better on a resume and gives you enough time to really know if you will end up liking it and if not you are at least leaving with some experience.

When I worked in the ICU as a newgrad 17 years ago we didn't have a Doc at night. If there was a code the ER Doc would come up, run the code then leave and you had to make allll the phone calls to all the doctors. The docs on call never knew a thing about the patient. I hated it. I would have liked ICU had I been at a bigger teacher hospital with support.

I thought ICU experience was required? I work pre op/pacu now and work with a lot of CRNA's. I'd definitely say PACU would be better than preop for experience.

I'm at an outpatient center and one family member can come back once they are in stage 2 of recovery. Once they are awake and dressed. Parents can come back as soon as the child wakes up. I just had surgery and saw no issue with this. The patients are still waking up from anesthesia and not concerned at the moment about having anyone back there. I see way too many videos on social media of people waking up from anesthesia and being out of it and saying and doing things that the family thinks is funny to film and post which bothers me. It's more respectful to the patient for them to be coherent before visitors are back there.

PACU at an outpatient surgery center won't be like ICU. I like the patient care of it but that they are healthy and out of there around an hour.

Honestly, you just gotta pay the $500, there is no alternative. Also finding the kind of work you are looking for can be difficult because so many people are wanting remote work. I'd suggest also looking for jobs at surgeries centers or hospitals doing "pre admission testing" (PAT nurses) - they just make phone calls all day making sure patients have everything done and all their info needed to be ready for surgery. Good luck!

I accepted a job doing pre op/pacu at an ASC mostly doing ortho. If this is your area of expertise could you list the top medications you give pre and post op? I'm trying to review all the things I know I'll be doing since it's a new area of nursing.

I have an interview and a 45 min shadow this coming week. Im so excited to shadow! I can't think of a better way to get a feel of the unit and if it's actually a place I would want to work. I honestly wish it was longer.

That is so helpful!! Thank you! The case manager RN sounds like it has to be a full time position. What would PRN position look like if you were only working say once a week?

I'm going to be making a few of these posts because there are several areas of nursing I'm considering switching too.. Hospice nurses- would you mind telling me what a general day would look like for you? How many homes you would go to? How is your job duties different when you are just checking in on a patient vs a patient actively dying? If someone is actively dying are you staying there or just called once they have passed if they are comfortable? It's such a new area of nursing but one I'm interested in so I'd love to be able to visualize how a shift would go. It would most likely be a PRN home position.

I'm glad you are liking it! Would you mind letting me know what it was you didn't like about home health and hospice? I've been considering a switch and contemplating on those.

keep your head up! Making a med error is hands down the worst feeling in the world. My stomach hurt just reading this because it took me back to how I felt when I made my big med error. I felt the exact same as you are feeling now. Yor charge nurse sounds like a real B.. My charge, CNS, Managers and fellow nurses al came to me and told me about their med errors to be supportive because they knew how upset I was. If it wasn't for that I probably would have quit too. The way you are feeling shows you are a good nurse, the ones who make excuses and brush it off like it's not a big deal are the ones to worry about. If you do leave that unit, let it be because you want to work with a supportive team, not because you don't think you are cut out for it.