When asked what sets the Perianesthesia Care Unit (PACU) at Temple University Hospital-Main Campus apart, its Nurse Manager, Tanya Slaughter, MHA, BSN, RN, LSSGB, answers without hesitation. “It’s our teamwork,” she says. “We go out of our way to collaborate. When we’re understaffed, someone else on the unit always jumps in. They’re so motivated to help each other and provide excellent care to our patients.”
The other PACU nurses agree. “We always try to foster teamwork,” says Karin Doherty, MSN, RN, CAPA, CPAN. “We look out for each other so we can do our best for our patients.”
With that commitment to each other—and to providing the highest-quality care—it’s no surprise that, in January 2023, the PACU earned the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses’ Silver-Level Beacon Award for Excellence for the second time in a row. This prestigious award recognizes units that provide exceptional treatment and put patients first, creating a positive and supportive work environment with significant collaboration, high morale, and low turnover.
Only two PACUs in Pennsylvania, and 15 PACUs nationwide, were recognized with the Beacon Award this year. That singles out the Main Campus PACU—and Temple Health—as a leader in extraordinary care.
“We’re already a Magnet hospital, and this is more recognition of our nursing excellence,” Slaughter says. “It’s a credit to all of the processes that we’ve put in place in the PACU that have made our unit safer and given our nurses greater autonomy. Our nurses are always thinking, ‘How can we make a difference?’”
To provide evidence of this excellence to the Beacon Award committee, the PACU assembled a team of five letter-writers: Doherty, plus Elena Claro, RN, BSN, Diana Ramos-Theurer BSN, RN, CAPA, Donna Peachey, MSN, RN, CPAN, and Amanda Cunningham, RN, BSN. “The committee wanted to see a lot of data about how we compare to other PACUs,” Doherty says.
“They also wanted to know how you function as a unit, and what your nurses are doing in terms of evidence-based practices,” Peachey adds. “They also wanted to see how you communicate with other healthcare personnel in the actual perioperative area, and how you were working to improve falls and length of stay. Improvement was a big focus—that we were trending upward.”
The award submission process itself was an example of how the PACU nurses excel at teamwork. “We broke the application down into sections,” Ramos-Theurer explains. “Donna worked on one part, I worked on another, and so on, and in the end, we all just combined what we’d written.” The group submitted the application in July 2023, and found out they’d received the award six months later.
“It’s such an honor,” Claro says, and the rest of her teammates agree. “The Beacon is about the highest quality of patient care, and supporting each other through teamwork,” Doherty explains. “By focusing on those strengths, and the fact that we were awarded the Beacon, we can become an even stronger unit. That’s what’s important: working together, not just for each other, but for the patients.”