Although the title varies from facility to facility, unlicensed personnel or patient care assistants (PCAs) are commonly employed in many hospitals. Either providing direct patient care or care that is more supportive in nature, PCAs perform countless tasks and multiple and indispensable duties. The advantage to having a PCA in the PACU is the potential for reduced PACU turnover time and the creation of a skilled employee that is a combination of a patient transporter and a patient care assistant (Speers & Ziolkowski, 1998). Some hospitals train PCAs to work in the OR and PACU, whereas other PACUs may share their PCAs with different parts of the hospital, and still other PACUs have dedicated PCA staff.
ASPAN has created “A Competency Based Orientation and Credentialing Program for the Unlicensed Assistive Personnel in the Perianesthesia Setting” which provides a comprehensive format for educating and assessing the skill of PCAs in the perianesthesia setting (2012).