Introduction:

The post-anesthesia care unit has been identified as a vulnerable area for the occurrence of adverse events. Here, the nursing staff is responsible for managing and taking care of patients.

Objective:

To explore the perception of the professional nursing staff about the performance of the post-anesthesia care unit, and portray certain aspects of its operations. Materials and methods: This is a mixed sequential study including an observational, descriptive and quantitative cross section phase and a qualitative, descriptive, interpretative phase, using grounded theory.

Results:

Nurses perceive the PACU as "a place for care" with weak processes such as patient handover and monitoring, communications among care providers, lack of specific skills of the ancillary staff and lack of teamwork. Work overload, extended administrative tasks that take away focus from patient care, in addition to a lack of compliance with protocols, are all conducive to the occurrence of adverse events.

Conclusions:

Nurses perceive the unit as a place of complex processes and particular char acteristics that make the unit prone to adverse events. Institutional factors, work team and professional-related aspects become threats that undermine the safety environment that should always prevail in every PACU. Specific strategies are discussed to turn the recovery unit into a safe care service for the surgical patient.

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