Abstract
Objective: To describe how semi-intensive recovery beds were implemented and adapted, within an operating room, during the pandemic of COVID-19. Experience report: Descriptive study, carried out in May 2021, which reports the experience of nurses working in a surgical center of a large public university hospital, located in southern Brazil, on the adaptations that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. An operating room was transformed into semi-intensive care unit beds, assisting in the recovery of surgical patients. Faced with the overwhelming pandemic, the hospital had to cope with the lack of available resources, structuring areas and training staff suddenly. Final considerations: With the worsening of the pandemic, hospitals are forced to take drastic measures to care for the largest number of people who are victims of COVID-19. With ICU beds crowded, many hospitals have envisioned the surgical center as a place where this complex care can be performed, using the structure and equipment of these places.