Bridging the Gap: Increasing Critical Care Knowledge and Skills in PACU Nurse Residents

A recent development of a Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) Nurse Residency Program (NRP) at a large teaching institution placed new graduate Nurse Residents (NR) in the PACU. The extent of NR Critical Care (CC) experience is limited to the time spent during nursing school clinical rotations, and observational CC shifts during the NRP. As a result, PACU stakeholders voiced concerns regarding NR lack of CC knowledge and skills. The PACU is a rapidly evolving unit that not only cares for post-surgical patients, but as also Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients who necessitate hemodynamic monitoring, ventilator management, and vasoactive medication titration on a daily basis.
Source: Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing - Category: Nursing Authors: Tags: ASPAN National Conference Abstract Source Type: research