SaraDavisEdick

Hi All, I work in a PACU where another nurse can get you a narcotic medication for you if your busy ie: medicating another pt, just getting report on pt, etc. that nurse will either give a dose of that medication themselves or hand it to the nurse taking care of that specific pt. We also will document electronically that we either gave the med or if the other nurse gave the med. Sometimes we waste with a whole different nurse after the patient has reached their comfort level. When it comes to breaks/lunch relief and we have a patient still reguiring medications we leave the rest of the med for the relief nurse to continue providing. I am curious what other PACU'S do and if any have any policies regarding this issue.

I agree also cover your own butt, but like you said real life nursing isnt always text book nursing. I'm trying to see if there are any PACU's that do this or don't do this and if they have a system in place as we are trying to change our system. Thank you for your response.

Hi All, I work in a PACU where another nurse can get you a narcotic medication for you if your busy ie: medicating another pt, just getting report on pt, etc. that nurse will either give a dose of that medication themselves or hand it to the nurse taking care of that specific pt. We also will document electronically that we either gave the med or if the other nurse gave the med. Sometimes we waste with a whole different nurse after the patient has reached their comfort level. When it comes to breaks/lunch relief and we have a patient still reguiring medications we leave the rest of the med for the relief nurse to continue providing. I am curious what other PACU'S do and if any have any policies regarding this issue.