How to become a PACU nurse

I am interested in becoming a PACU nurse. What skills or courses are required?

Thanks
Steve

Narcotic counts

I would like to know how other PACU nurses document the waste of narcotic when you are on call and there is not a second RN to witness the waste. Do you leave it for the next regular shift to document the waste? This is aproblem for us since we don't have the patients chart to verify what was given. Or do you dispose of the narcotic without a second witness?

Thank you,
Anna

Conscious sedation

Would you be able to tell me what best practice currently is around conscious sedation in Ambulatory care clinics or Emergency departments? Who must be present for the procedures? I am loooking at updating a policy andprocedure. Thanks so much.

antiemetics

I work in a busy pacu in Owen Sound and would be interested in finding out about standards of care regarding the administration of antiemetics in the PACU. In particular, is there a delay in transporting a patient to floor or to Day Surgery for further recovery, after the administration of antiemetics, when all other parameters are OK?
Thanking you in advance,

Sheilah
Owen Sound

discharge criteria

Can you share your discharge criteria from PACU?
What are your criteria for when a only porter needs accompany a patient to a ward bed (day surgery or inpatient) and when a nurse must be present?

thanks in advance,
Evelyn

discharge home from PACU

Do the current standards provide support to deter the discharge home ofpatients directly from the PACU? We recently had a situation where the nightnurse was put in a position of discharging an elderly patient at midnight toher home post a general anesthetic for a fracture after falling.Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Sylvia

Medication Adminstration Records

Hi Everyone I have a quick question for you all. Do you use MARs in your PACU? We are heading this way for our ICU and longterm patients.(only) If you do use MARs, Do you also include the prn narcotics on the Mars or do they stay on the PACU record? Our staff is questioning removing these from the PACU flow sheet and putting them on the Mars. Thanks for your time. We are just wondering what other PACU are doing?
Lorna
PACU
Royal Columbian Hospital