PACU Nurse Observation Essay

On one of my clinical days at San Ramon Regional Medical Center, my classmates and I all had the opportunity to be a student charge on the Med-Surg unit. As I have observed from my work place as well as at our clinical sites, charge nurses are the ones in charge of dividing bed assignments, solving conflicting issues among the staff, helping or coordinating with admissions, and keeping nursing care adequately delivered to patients. Charge nurses also do a lot more including signing doctor’s orders, resource or advisor for others, answering phones and call lights, rounding with doctors, and dealing with family members. I always viewed the role of charge nurse to help other nurses and make their loads easier. As I continue to be exposed to what their role truly is, my views changes through time and experience.

Surgeons rely on technology, from diathermy to the operating room lights, assistance and team work. The conscientious staff should always ensure that the equipment is functioning and reliable. Hospital acquired conditions are medical complications that has a negative impact on patients during their hospital stay. Medicaid or additional services are not reliable to pay the hospital for any conditions that were developing while in the hospital. Based on surveys through several studies, expertise shows that medical conditions and errors are preventable. The beginning process of surgery usually starts with the patients preparations. Healthcare providers will remove hair that is on the body to be operated on. Patients who are diabetics must have their blood sugar monitor. Before any surgical procedure, healthcare nurses must interview the patient if they are scheduled to have surgery. The steps are getting blood withdrawn for lab work, receiving and E.K.G and information on past medical history. This type of process is to make sure the patient is healthier enough to undergo surgery. The preoperative phase which is the first stage used to perform tests; however the results of testing may come out wrong due to a malfunction in the machine. This can lead to a surgical infections and errors during prep and procedures. The goal of perioperative care is to provide

The role of a family nurse practitioner is a fundamental portion of the future of healthcare. The role is clearly not as understood by other healthcare professionals as needed which results in the disagreement if the role of a family nurse practitioner is even required for primary care. As people are getting older, the need for medical professionals that can provide patient care to our ever growing population increases. The need for the role of family nurse practitioners will grow too. The role of the family nurse practitioner, the ability of the FNP to be able to transition into their role.

The aim of this assignment is to critically discuss the nursing assessment individualised care and nursing interventions of the acutely ill patient. The patient discussed developed severe sepsis due to a urinary tract infection and her condition deteriorated during the recovery process in the nurse’s care. Lovick (2009) defines sepsis ‘as a known or suspected infection accompanied by evidence of two or more of the SIRS criteria’. SIRS is outlined as a ‘systemic inflammatory response’ consisting of two or more of the following symptoms ‘temperature >38 degrees Celsius or 90 beats per minute, respiratory rates greater than 20 breaths per minute and white blood count higher than 12,000 cells per microliter or lower than 4000 cells per

When I arrive to the Trauma ICU 4800 unit, all of the nurses were already being followed by other students. The nurse in charge had me follow several different nurses, so I was able to observed several different patient cases. The first patient had received a triple bypass open-heart surgery. The patient had received a creatinine blood test. The patient had a dialysis machine next to them, which was used to function as the kidneys since the patient’s kidneys were not functioning correctly. Also, the patient’s body temperature was lowered from having a taken cool liquids so the nurses were keeping him warm with a bair hugger, which was a machine that helped regulate the patient's’ body temperatures.

I have scheduled an interview and time to observe a nurse leader with the Director of Nursing (DON) for the Virginian Nursing and Rehab facility in Fairfax, Virginia for Thursday October 2, 2014 at 7:30am. I plan on spending a full eight-hour shift with the nurse leader observing the following three leadership activities: 1) Observing her making rounds on the units 2) Observing and or participating in a nursing leadership meeting and 3) Observing the facility’s interdisciplinary team meeting.

Before a procedure begins, the nurse anesthetist will discuss with a patient any medications the patient is taking as well as any allergies or illnesses the patient may have. This must be done so anesthesia can be safely administered. Nurse anesthetists then give a patient general anesthesia to put the patient to sleep so they feel no pain during surgery or they may administer a regional

VASNHS Surgical Specialty Outpatient department has a designated pre-operative management unit that oversees the patients undergoing surgery. The predicaments stem from various guidelines or protocol originating from numerous surgeons and clinics. At present, the pre-operative nurses abide simple pre-op instructions (NPO protocol, medications, what to bring, during the surgery, transportation, cancellation instructions) for the entire Surgical Specialty Outpatient department. Surgical procedures are being canceled due to lack of communications and cancelations of patients prior to surgery date.

Do you want to help save a life in the medical field but not do all the dirty work? Well being a nurse anesthetist is the perfect job for you. You get to be involved with the surgery and you don't need to even touch the insides of another person. Betty Horton, a experienced CRNA, says “Beings a nurse anesthetist is the best job you could ever have. It started my life off and made other things in my life accomplishable.” There are 170,400 jobs available to become a nurse anesthetist. That means there is 170,400 opportunities to help save someone's life. I believe that college is important in order to become a successful nurse anesthetist.

The second week of my preceptorship brought many new experiences for me, and I can honestly say that each day I spend with my preceptor is better than the last. This week I focused on time management of a full patient load with continued documentation practice as well as admission and discharge procedures. I’ve had brief experiences in my past rotations assisting with discharge teaching and admission assessments however I have never been able to fully take charge and complete the process from start to finish, so this was a great learning opportunity for me.

During many years the role of school nurse was traditionally viewed as one where the nurse cared for students that were injured, applied bandages and gave out ice bags. Throughout the years the role of the school nurse has evolved into one of leadership and management along with many other duties including traditional roles as mentioned above. The services provided by a school nurse range from assessment and screening to coordinating care for regular students as well as students with special needs. School nursing requires experience and knowledge in school, public, community and emergency health to meet the many needs of school aged children and youth. The school nurse provides many services but the basic services provided include

Lily was a 65 year old lady with stage 5 CKD, she had recently begun hemodialysis treatment three times a week as an inpatient and had been responding well to treatment. During dialysis treatment on the morning of the first day, Lily’s observations showed that she was: tachycardic, hypotensive, tachypnoeaic, had an oxygen saturation level of 88% and was becoming confused and drowsy. It became apparent that Lily had become hypovolaemic. The hypovolaemic shock seen in this patient was of a particular critical nature due to the fact that her dialysis treatment had moved her rapidly through the first two stages of shock with her compensatory mechanisms failing very quickly (Tait, 2012). It was also much harder to identify the early signs of

Medical-Surgical: Provided care for 2 patients per assignment. Provided teaching, focused assessments, wound care, medication administration, charting, creating and implementing nursing care plans. Floated to pre-op, PACU, out patient surgery, respiratory, and GI suit.

A surgical nurse is responsible for monitoring and ensuring quality healthcare for a patient following surgery. Assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention, and outcome evaluation are inherent in the post operative nurse’s role with the aim of a successful recovery for the patient. The appropriate provision of care is integral for prevention of complications that can arise from the anaesthesia or the surgical procedure. Whilst complications are common at least half of all complications are preventable (Haynes et al., 2009). The foundations of Mrs Hilton’s nursing plan are to ensure that any post surgery complications are circumvented. My role as Mrs Hilton’s surgical nurse will involve coupling my knowledge and the professional

PACU stands for Post Anesthesia Care Unit but at SCKMC the PACU also brings the patients in from the waiting room and prepares them for the procedure. I don’t know if it is the same at other hospitals or not. I helped to bring the patient in from the waiting room to their room, gave them instructions on changing into their gown, ask them to place all their clothes, jewelry, etc. into the bag so we can put it in a locker for them, get a UA, take their vitals, ask them questions, and charting. We had to ask when they last ate or drank, if they’ve taken any medications, how they handled the colonoscopy prep, get their height and weight if it wasn’t already in the chart, read the list of meds to them to make sure it is current, etc. There were