Working Alone

This too happened where I worked. There was lots of turn over, but I and my patients are safer for it.

A follow up note, though this post is old. I have worked in 4 separate PACUs, 1 medium, 2 very large, and one tiny rural facility. Only 1 person with a recovering patient is NOT acceptable and ASPAN makes that clear. Your coworkers should be ashamed. I have NEVER been in a unit that allowed 1 person with a recovering patient. there is a reason the standard is there, IT ISNT SAFE to have less than 2 pairs of hands. You should be proud to have stood up and done the right thing, though I am sorry your are being put over the ringer for it.

Well ya'll, since then I am now CPAN certified and familiar with ASPAN standards of care. Now after some employee turnover because of the additional call implementation, I am the one my fellow nurses turn to when they have a question! You are right! I hung in there!!

We only keep one PACU nurse on call as well. When I first started, taking call scared the crap out of me, but it really hasn't been bad. The CRNA typically stays in PACU the first several minutes to finish up charting & the anesthesiologist often stays at the desk until the pt is fully awake. The circulator will also float thru at least once to make sure the PACU nurse doesn't need help. So usually there is at least one & sometimes 2 extra people there until the patient is awake & answering questions. After that, I'm usually on my own but by that point the pt is meeting discharge criteria & I just need to catch up charting & send report or discharge home.