JANUARY 1989, VOL. 49, NO 1 AORN JOURNAL

Letters to the Editor

Helpful Hint

n our postanesthesia care unit (PACU), we use I an automatic blood pressure machine, and we have found that after the cuff is on and in use for a while, the patient’s arm will have small petechiae under the cuff area. We now use a lining made from tubular stockinette. This stockinette is slipped on the arm, and the blood pressure cuff is placed over the stockinette. The stockinette and cuff are placed on the patient preoperatively, and remain on the patient throughout surgery and in the PACU. No petechiae has been noted when the stockinette is used. The stockinette will form lines on the skin area, but they will fade. The readings of the automatic blood pressure machine will not change with the stockinette cuff, and the stockinette is reusable.

VIRGINIA SULLIVAN, RN PACU COORDINATOR

ENCINITAS OUTPATIENT SURGICENTER ENCINITAS. CALIF

Return Nurses to the Behide

believe the nursing profession needs to look at I ways to bring nurses back to the bedside. Perhaps what the American Medical Association (AMA) is saying with its registered care technologist (RCT) proposal is “nursing profes- sionals wake up!” Nursing seems to be educating nurses to do paperwork instead of patient care.

To a certain extent I understand the necessity for accurate paperwork because of the litigious

society that we live in. On the other hand, why should a nurse write a nursing care plan to document what should be done instead of providing the necessary hands-on patient care and then documenting the patient care given and providing a patient assessment? What happened to the days when the RN gave a bed bath or a back rub and did an assessment at the same time?

If nurses show the AMA that we are getting back to the basics of patient care, it is my opinion that the AMA will back off of its RCT proposal.

NANCY C. STRICKER, RN, CNOR ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF SURGERY

ST FRANCIS MEDICAL CENTER CAPE GIRARDEAU, M o

Pain Management Article Lauded

s an operating room supervisor who recently A became a patient in my own department, I would like to thank the Journal for its informative article on patient-controlled analgesia, which appeared in the September 1988 issue.

I must admit that I had some doubts about its use when it was introduced at my hospital. But after my exploratory laparotomy, I have nothing but compliments for this method of pain management. All of the benefits listed in the article were true in my case. I especially appreciated the ability to control my pain without being drowsy most of the time.

With the proper instruction, patients (and

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