[OR/PACU] What do you ask before accepting an OR or PACU assignment?

Instruction: Answer from the perspective of a strong candidate in travel OR and PACU hiring. Be specific, practical, and grounded in recent unit experience.

Context: Assesses whether the candidate can answer a common travel OR and PACU hiring question with specific, role-aligned reasoning.

Example Answer

Before accepting, I want to know the true case mix, service lines, call expectations, shift structure, charting system, and what the unit expects from travelers in the first couple of weeks. In the OR, I want to know whether the need is general coverage or specialty-heavy, whether travelers are expected to scrub as well as circulate, and how call is structured. In PACU, I want to know the recovery acuity, whether travelers recover pediatric or high-risk cases, how phase I and phase II are split, and what backup support looks like.

I ask those questions because perioperative assignments can look straightforward on paper and feel very different once you arrive. Good travelers ask enough up front to understand whether the service-line fit is real, whether the call burden is realistic, and whether they are walking into a workflow they can enter safely with a short orientation.

Common Poor Answer to Avoid

"As long as it is OR or PACU, I can usually make it work."

Why it's weak

  • It treats highly specialized procedural settings as interchangeable.

Why this works

  • It reflects how experienced perioperative travelers actually screen contracts.

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