Learn How to Protect Against WAG in the PACU! Implement a Scavenging System, apply EBP!

[@pacunursingminutes]

If you’re interested in Pacu nursing, you must know about WAG especially if you work here! Come learn about scavenging systems and the long and short term affects of WAG a must listen!

[@scrapbookedmemories7736]

For 32 years, I’ve been an RN. I started in the upper Midwest. I have worked all over the country. I truly miss the innovation of this region of the country. It’s a gift to hear again from my Midwestern colleagues.

[@Uneekabilitys]

Have there been any follow up studies related to wag and bedside PACU RNs with current guidelines during Covid related to providers wearing masks especially N 95 masks?

[@pacunursingminutes]

Yes! Check out ASPANs white paper on WAG here! www.aspan.org/Portals/88/Publications/White%20Papers/Recognition-Evaluation-and-Control-of-Waste-Anesthetic-Gases-in-the-Post-Anesthesia-Care-Unit-White-Paper.pdf?ver=n_GPuy4ZFclJnOhzDQCLjg%3d%3d The scavenging systems on the market do offer control over pathogens 🦠 too such as Covid 19! Everyone should have a scavenging system in the PACU! All OR’s do!

[@blanco_figaro_catsaleh4017]

ok this is scary? i am pregnant. if my hospital refused to do the scavenging how can i protect myself? face shield, or N95? need help please

[@pacunursingminutes]

Hi Blanco, Unfortunately an N95 will not block the gases you need to distance from the breathing zone- safely while also being able to maintain the patient’s airway. Unfortunately without a scavenging system you will be exposed. The scavenging systems are very affordable to implement I would highly recommend talking to your management about purchasing them for your department. This may be the opportunity to discuss this occupational hazards and do a performance improvement project. The solution is pretty simple just apply a facemask it goes to suction and then the WAG gases will be contained.

[@pacunursingminutes]

If you go to ASPAN’s website they have references on WAG I highly recommend that you direct your nursing administration and occupational safety officers to this website.

[@danielpayne839]

I shared this video with a large group of anesthesia colleagues to get their opinion. They completely agree that the amount of anesthetic waste gas in PACU is negligible and that it would be a very irresponsible allocation of department resources to purchase this product.

[@pacunursingminutes]

May I kindly suggest some light reading, 55 articles, studies, guidelines addressing wag for you to review at the end of the video.

[@pacunursingminutes]

www.cdc.gov/niosh/surveyreports/pdfs/2022-dfse-822.pdf Read the most recent NIOSH Study & NIH, WAG Survelance Program & Recommendations www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6442871/pdf/ubmc-32-01-1502017.pdf

[@danielpayne839]

I'm sorry but this really does seem superfluous to me. I'm a certified registered nurse anesthetist. I was a PACU nurse that transitioned to open heart recovery and then into anesthesia. I can tell you first hand that the amount of anesthetic gases that a patient is breathing into open air after extubation is inconsequential. When you put a patient to sleep they are breathing 2%-6% of volatile anesthetic gas depending on which gas is selected. When extubating, the only way to wake the patient up is to breathe all of that gas off typically before removing the tube. At that point, the patient may be breathing off gas that is being redistributed back out from the fat tissue but it is an extremely small amount with no clinical significance. Taking gas laws into consideration, these small trace amounts of gas are then further diluted when they evenly and rapidly disperse throughout the room. By the time the patient gets to PACU they won't have any clinically significant amount of volatile anesthetic gas in their system to exhale, especially in an ambulatory care setting where the surgeries are quick and most anesthesia providers don't pull the tube deep because there aren't as many resources if the patient laryngospasms. This just seems like a dentist trying to push a product.

[@pacunursingminutes]

May I kindly suggest some light reading, 55 articles, studies, guidelines addressing wag for you to review at the end of the video.

[@danielpayne839]

@@pacunursingminutes are any of those articles written by an anesthesia professional and published in an anesthesia related journal after being peer-reviewed? If not, then no I don't have any interest in reading your 55 articles on a topic that my entire profession of graduate prepared highly trained experts agree is superfluous.

[@pacunursingminutes]

@@danielpayne839 check out this recent study by NIOSH 2022, www.cdc.gov/niosh/surveyreports/pdfs/2022-dfse-822.pdf