Certified Ambulatory Perianesthesia Nurse (CAPA) Practice Exam

Postoperative complications often necessitate extended monitoring to ensure patient safety, manage pain, and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions. When complications such as excessive bleeding, respiratory distress, or anesthetic reactions occur, healthcare providers must extend the patient's stay in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) to assess and address these issues adequately. This proactive monitoring allows for timely interventions, minimizing the risk of adverse outcomes and ensuring that the patient is stable before transferring to the next care level. In contrast, while other factors such as staff shortages or patient comfort can affect discharge timing, they do not inherently require a prolonged PACU stay as directly as the management of postoperative complications does.