Outpatient Surgery Jobs Are On the Rise for Healthcare Workers

Advancing Your Healthcare Career,Healthcare Careers,RN

One of the emerging specialties in nursing is seeing a significant increase and the need for PRN workers to fill jobs, which is outpatient surgery. Outpatient surgery nurses take care of patient needs before and after surgeries. They administer medications, provide wound care, toiletry needs, and pain management, and evaluate patients' overall well-being after surgical procedures and minor surgeries.

Outpatient surgery is very different from long-term staying patients. After outpatient nurses teach them some knowledge, outpatient surgery patients can usually handle themselves. The outpatient nurse's job is to help teach the care instructions and necessary steps to take while recovering at home. This is a lot of information, a big responsibility, and is completed in a usually short period.

What is Outpatient Surgery?

Outpatient surgery is an essential part of nursing. They are usually the last to give follow-up instructions on the best care for surgery wounds, medications, and comfort. Outpatient surgery usually starts from the end of anesthesia to the point of going home. Outpatient nurses are the last line of defense between proper care and patients returning for something incorrectly done. They must be great communicators and educators at transferring information for post-surgery care. Outpatient nurses are the first line of defense for proper care when patients have surgeries where they can go home shortly after surgeries. During outpatient procedures and before and after same-day surgery, same-day surgery nurses care for patients. Nursing facilities that provide ambulatory care and same-day surgery provide patients with cost-effective methods of preventing diseases, managing chronic illnesses, and promoting health. For more information on a day in the life of an outpatient nurse, here is an excellent article from the UK. 

What Are Common Types of Outpatient Surgeries?

There are different types of outpatient nurses, each helping with varying aspects of the patient's overall care. There are around 12 types of outpatient nurses, and anyone considering outpatient nursing can consider one of these 12 best suits them. There are more kinds of outpatient nurses, each with unique roles and responsibilities.

  • School Nurses: treat minor wounds and issues
  • Surgical nurses: treat post-surgery wounds, medications, and discharge
  • Certified nurse midwife: treat the mother's and child's care before leaving the healthcare facility
  • Community nurse: helps people in their homes, facilities, or places where it is hard for patients to remain mobile
  • Nurse care manager: will manage a team of nurses, staff, and allied workers for outpatients
  • Occupational health nurse: will help workers and staff in the place of occupation
  • Home health nurse: will visit patients in their homes and sometimes even rural where patients can't move
  • Public health nurse: will often administer vaccines and shots, and offer information on public health issues
  • Ophthalmology Nurse: will work with patients that had same-day surgeries like LASIK, or same-day eye surgery that requires only time to recover at home
  • Hospice Nurse: will often work with end-of-life patients taking care of comfort and medications
  • Infusion nurse: will assist with all IV, direct line, and various kinds of infusions for patients
  • Behavioral nurse: will work with patients that need a more psychological approach to outpatient nursing

Outpatient Vs. Inpatient Surgery

Inpatient nurses usually care for patients on 12-hour shifts taking care of everything from vitals, medicines, notes, and bathroom assistance. The hours can be around the same, but the outpatient nurses' patient turnover rate is much higher. At the same time, outpatient nurses have a limited time with patients ranging from hours to six months for hospice care nurses.

PACU Jobs Versus Other Nursing Specialities?

Outpatient nurses can also be PACU nurses specializing in post-anesthesia care and working in a hospital's PACU. During recovery from anesthesia, they care for patients who just underwent surgery. These are highly trained and highly paid PRN shift nurses. They need to adjust to situations quickly, often without a lengthy onboarding process.

According to the United States of Labor Statistics (BLS), nursing is an excellent investment field because by 2030, the nursing field will increase by 52%, and the pay will increase with these numbers.

Best Place To Find Outpatient PRN Shifts?

The best place to find a PRN shift as an outpatient nurse is by using Nursa. Nursa is an easy-to-use- application you can download onto your phone and use. Firstly, a profile has to be filled out with the proper updated credentials, training, fingerprints, background checks, and other valuable data. Once the profile is complete, you can look for the perfect outpatient PRN shifts, assignments, and short-term contracts. For more information on finding outpatient jobs, please read our other blog here.

Blog published on:
December 22, 2022

Miranda is a Registered Nurse, Medical Fact Checker, and Publishing Editor at Nursa. Her work has been featured in publications including the American Nurses Association (ANA), Healthcare IT Outcomes, International Living, and more.

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