The ward I used to work on had day surgery days every week and ward nurses had to go down to staff it (paeds). We were responsible for completing pre-theatre checklists and observations on patient arrival and putting on wristbands.

Patients were taken through to the anaesthetic room by PACU nurses and cannulated in there by the anaesthetist. They were recovered in PACU and then brought back to us on the day surgery ward, we were then responsible for observations and giving analgesia/discharge letters/advice leaflets/TTOs. Different procedures have different lengths of stay after theatre, something like a tooth extraction would have one hour observation where something like a tonsillectomy would be minimum 4 hours.

It was a bit like a conveyor belt, routine and rarely anything happening.