Ideas That Work: Help Your PACU Nurses Picture the Patient's OR Position

How can you expect your recovery room nurses to be on the lookout for pressure injuries when they don’t know what position the patient was in during surgery? A simple solution that worked for us: We collected simulated photos of different positions — prone, supine, lateral, beach chair, high/low Fowler’s, split leg, supine hip and robot — laminated them and put them in a red binder to show to our recovery room nurses. The photos highlight likely pressure points so our PACU team can monitor patients’ skin — and not focus on the swollen face or blotchy skin that likely had nothing to do with their positioning in the OR.

Katherine Buckhaults, MS, RN, CNOR
Sheila Capasso, MSN, RN, ANNCN-AG, CAPA
The Miriam Hospital
Providence, R.I.
[email protected]
[email protected]