PACU Nurse Observation

For my Observation experience rotation I went to PACU at the North Florida Regional Medical Women's Center. I learned all of the basic tasks that need to be completed minutes after the patient comes out of surgery. The surgeries that the patients had that I cared for were, a total hysterectomy, a cysectomy, and a procedure to take out a miscarried fetus. I learned that it is a lot more than just waiting for the patient to wake up. As soon as the patient came in from the operating room you hook the patient to a continuous vital sign monitor and obtain a hand off report from the operating room nurse as well as the Anesthesia nurse. The handoff report includes the demographics of the patient, what surgery was performed, what medications were given, the vital signs of the patient throughout surgery, and how the patient tolerated things during surgery.
Before the operating room nurse and the anastia nurse leave the PACU nurse must ensure that the patient meets the criteria to be in PACU.Those criteria include the written order from the doctor, the patient must be accompanied by the nurse of anesthesia, and the vital signs must be stable. The vital signs values for this particular phase include: Respirations more than 10 bpm and less than 30 bpm, the systolic pressure must be more than 90
The nurse steadily monitors for signs of complications. The nurse also gives a does of pain medication to keep the patient in minimal pain. Some sign of complications include a rise in temperature, a rise or fall in heart rate, a rise or fall in blood pressure, or signs of excessive