Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing
Abstract
Working in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) and the operating room (OR) for the last two decades, the number of daily tasks is growing longer and longer. This increase in the number of tasks for each health care worker is partially due to the shrinking workforce. A 2024 study found that since 2021, there has been a noted loss of competitiveness in health care jobs due to health care workers exiting health care to other industries.1 Along with increased daily tasks, I have experienced the average patient to be more medically complex. My average patient now has more medical diagnoses and is taking more medications, and many of these medications are new. The time required to research new medications and various medical diagnoses can become overwhelming. With the increasingly complex patients in the PACU setting, caring for and discharging each patient becomes more challenging. The PACU staff is tasked with preventing postoperative complications and keeping the patient comfortable while achieving a precise and timely discharge of each patient to optimize the hospital's limited health care staff. Over this past year, I have noticed that most of my colleagues have embraced using artificial intelligence (AI) daily. I have seen my colleagues using AI to assist them in daily tasks, from clothes shopping to trip planning and researching things on social media. From ChatGPT to Grok, AI has now been integrated into most of my colleagues' personal lives. Logically, the next step for AI is to be integrated into our professional lives. Thus, exploring the article, Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) Readiness Predictions Using Machine Learning: A Comparative Study of Algorithms, will be helpful for the PACU Registered Nurse (RN) to examine one way in which AI is being used in the PACU.2
First Page
1410
Last Page
1411
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jopan.2025.06.019
Publication Date
10-2025
Recommended Citation
Vaughn, Jonathan, "Using Artificial Intelligence Algorithms in Predicting Discharge From the Postanesthesia Recovery Unit (PACU)" (2025). Nursing Publications. 4.
https://digitalcollections.umc.edu/sonfac_pub/4
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
