Qualitative interviews of 16 nurses revealed that competence in post-anaesthesia care requires adaptability and creating safe care, while expert nurses are characterized by seeing the bigger picture.
Nurse competence in PACUs requires specific knowledge, adaptability, and proactive teamwork to provide safe care, with expert nurses characterized by their ability to see the bigger picture.
BACKGROUND: To enable safe and successful recovery for surgery patients, nurses working in post-anaesthesia care units need competence in postoperative care. No consensus defines what this specific competence includes, and it has not been studied from the perspective of nurses working in post-anaesthesia care units. The aim of this study is twofold: 1) To explore and describe nurses' perception of the competence needed to work in post-anaesthesia care units. 2) To explore and describe nurses' perception of what characterizes an expert nurse in post-anaesthesia care units. METHODS: This qualitative inductive study uses individual interviews. Sixteen nurses were recruited from two post-anaesthesia care units located in different parts of Sweden. Inclusion criteria were nurses employed in the post-anaesthesia care units for ≥1 years. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted; data were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The interview analysis identified six subthemes and three themes. The themes being adaptable in an ever-changing environment and creating safe care represent the overarching meaning of competence required when working as a nurse in a Swedish post-anaesthesia care unit. Nurses must possess various technical and nontechnical skills, which are core competences that are described in the sub-themes. The theme seeing the bigger picture describes the nurse's perception of an expert nurse in the post-anaesthesia care unit. CONCLUSIONS: Nurse competence in post-anaesthesia care units entails specific knowledge, acknowledging the patient, and working proactively at a fast pace with the patient and team to provide safe, high-quality care. An expert nurse in post-anaesthesia care units can see the bigger picture, helping share knowledge and develop post-anaesthesia care. The expert competence to see a bigger picture can be used in supervising novices and creating a knowledge base for postgraduate education in order to promote safe, high-quality post-anaesthesia care.
Dahlberg et al. (Wed,) conducted a other in Post-anaesthesia care nursing (n=16). Qualitative interviews of 16 nurses revealed that competence in post-anaesthesia care requires adaptability and creating safe care, while expert nurses are characterized by seeing the bigger picture.
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