Perioperative Nurse
Perioperative nurses assist the surgeon during procedures and ensure the smooth operation of surgical processes. They work alongside surgeons, anaesthetists, perfusionists, embryologists and other medical professionals.
Key responsibilities of a perioperative nurse include:
Anaesthetic Nurse
Anaesthetic nurses are trained to provide support to both the patient and anaesthetist intraoperatively.
Key responsibilities of an anaesthetic nurse include:
Post Anaesthesia Care Unit (PACU) Nurse
PACU nurses oversee the care of patients as they awaken from anaesthesia. PACU nurses are responsible for ensuring the patient's postoperative condition remains stable by conducting regular observations.
Key responsibilities of a PACU nurse include:
Skin-to-skin Initiative
The "Skin-to-Skin" programme for elective caesarean surgeries in the Operating Theatre (OT) ensures compliance with NUH's standards as a Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI). Traditionally, midwives in the OT were responsible for facilitating and maintaining skin-to-skin contact between mothers and babies. In this initiative, OT nurses take on the role of receiving the neonate from the surgeon and assisting the neonatal physician in providing initial care. One crucial aspect of improving the caesarean section experience involves avoiding the separation of mother and child by promoting immediate skin-to-skin contact after birth.
Assistant Nurse Clinician Joyce Chai shares her experiences with this new initiative that started in 2019.
"It has been a fulfilling journey thus far, coming out of my comfort zone and challenged with the certifications and situations of handling the care of neonates for elective caesarean sections. Acting as an advocate and seeing the overjoyed smiles on the parents' faces when their baby is presented to them, brings me great job satisfaction."
PACU Nurse-Controlled Analgesia
Since 2012, registered nurses have had the authority to initiate and administer analgesia to post-surgery patients experiencing pain. In the PACU, the presence of just one anaesthetist can pose a challenge, particularly when attending to a patient, leading to delayed attention for others. By empowering nurses to titrate analgesia immediately, patients' pain is more promptly managed, allowing for earlier discharge to the ward for rest. This initiative has garnered positive feedback from both anaesthetists and nurses, benefiting the patients.
PACU Nurse-led Discharge
Introduced in 2002, this initiative aims to address delays in patient discharge from the PACU due to the unavailability of the anaesthetist. Trained and certified PACU nurses assess post-operative patients based on established guidelines and criteria for discharge. This initiative ensures that the majority of patients are discharged by PACU nurses, enabling anaesthetists to focus on managing more complex post-operative cases and reducing patient frustration and length of stay in the PACU.
