Roles and Responsibilities of PACU Nurse

Question: Discuss about theRoles and Responsibilities of PACU Nurse. Answer: Introduction Serving as a Post anesthesia care unit (PACU) nurse can be a quite challenging task because it comes with lots of duties and responsibilities that must be diligently discharged. In order to help a patient to attain an effective recovery after anesthesia, the PACU nurse has a mandate to thoroughly assess the patients health status; manage admission; accurately perform the documentation process; monitor the vital signs; and developed a well-organized individual care plan. However, failure to do so can result into an ethical and legal controversy that might in turn affect the practitioner. Having said this, I would like to explicitly express that I do remember, with a lot of regret, an incident in which a PACU nurse was accused of patient error (Hungness, et al., 2013). The challenge occurred when the practitioner failed to perform a proper management of the surgical patient due to inefficiencies in the monitoring of the patients health status, improper anesthesia administration, incons istent documentation, and poor assessment of the patient. As a result of this, the patient suffered complications like tachycardia, vomiting, and nausea. This was an unfortunate incident that proved that the PACU nurse had violated the prerequisite ethical and legal procedures that are required in a post anesthesia care. The violation caused an error that resulted into serious postoperative injuries that made the patient to suffer a great deal. Therefore, to address this challenge, the PACU nurse would have taken all the necessary measures to ensure that the patient is safely undertaken through the postoperative treatment. If the patient adhered to the principles of safety management, the error might have been prevented (Shope, et al., 2016). Meaning, no such unfortunate incident would have been experienced if the practitioner embraced team work, effective communication, proper equipment use as well as active involvement of the patients family and carers. So, because of such violati ons, the practitioner should be compelled to take responsibility. The action implies that the practitioner was not so much concerned about the safety of the patient. Otherwise, deliberate measures could have been taken to deliver quality care for the best interest of the patient. One of the ethical obligations of a nurse is confidentiality. Meaning, when serving a patient, the nurse has a moral responsibility to preserve the confidentiality of the patient. Here, it means that the nurse should refrain from sharing private and confidential information about the patient to other unauthorized parties including other healthcare professionals, family members, and the general public unless otherwise stated in the law, without the consent of the patient (Badzek, Henaghan, Turner Monsen, 2013). The observation of confidentiality requirements implies that the healthcare provider is not supposed to reveal the patients confidential health information to the carers without seeking for the approval of the concerned patient. It is a legal mandate for the nurse to seek for a valid consent of the patient before engaging in such actions. So, when delivering post anesthesia care, the PACU nurse should be guided by the principle of confidentiality and respect. So, once a patien t refuses that confidential information should not be shared with the carers, PACU nurse should not fail to do so. If the patient is in a stable and conscious mental state, their opinion should be respected. In this case, the carers cannot get access to private information relating to the patients health. Otherwise, if the patient consents, the nurse should go ahead and disseminate private information to the carers to enable them learn much about the patients health status. This can help the carers in making important decisions regarding the health plan of the patient. After all, the carers are responsible persons who are responsible for the patient (Holloway Wheeler, 2013). However, no matter how complex the concept of confidentiality can be, the PACU nurse can find himself in a dilemma especially when a need arises to disclose the patients private information t the carers. Although the law is quite categorical on what is to be done, the practitioner can treat the matter as an exception and be ready to disclose the patients private health information to the carers even without seeking for the patients consent. This can be done when the patient is not capable of consenting. An incapable patient is a minor or mentally-unsound patient who cannot make rational judgments to give a valid consent. Should this be the case, the healthcare provider is free to reveal the patients private information to the carers (Engel Prentice, 2013). As concerned persons, the carers deserve to be equipped with adequate information on the patient because it can help them in collaborating with the healthcare providers to make important decision regarding the health of the patien t. However, the carers should ensure that the same information is kept private and not revealed to any other unauthorized parties. References Badzek, L., Henaghan, M., Turner, M., Monsen, R. (2013). 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