I worked Monday-Friday(1/2 Saturday once monthly), 8 hrs daily, no holidays, no nights, (after a few years I started working 4-10 hour days) in a GI ambulatory surgical center PACU for colonoscopies, gastroscopies, sigmoidoscopies.
Patients received either Versed/Fentanyl or Propofol. Versed/Fentanyl would make patients nauseous so we switched to Propofol. With Propofol they woke up quicker and not groggy.
The patients stayed in PACU for 15-20 minutes (you have to get VS q 5 minutes) and I was responsible for 2 patients at a time. It was a busy place with 3 MDs working at the same time, so you had to stay on top of things and get patients in and get them out to make room for more incoming patients. Plus you have to clean your bays after they leave, strip the stretcher of all sheets, blankets, pillow cases, and wipe down everything including stretcher and pillow, and move stretcher out—usually in an unoccupied overflow bay. Main job was to encourage patients to fart to get all excess air out so they didn’t cramp and cry lol. They can have a snack and drink if they get their air out. No snacking or drinking for the non-farting crowd because you will then be dealing with their N+V and their extended stay. I liked working there for 11 years because I also worked Pre-op and procedure room. You won’t get a lot of different nursing experience like you would in a Med/Surg floor in the hospital, but I had been there, done that. I took that job because my friend worked there and she got me in . I was working in a dermatologist office but I was bored there. I now do home infusion nursing and I would never go back to punching a time clock again! I love one on one with patients.
I absolutely love PACU. You’d need to find a job that staffs according to cases. - I worked so hard at one job, balancing 3 patients at a time. Then I found a job, according to other places, was “over staffed.” However, it was based on cases, and I was able to spend more time with my patients going over DC instructions so they fully understand.
