[oldornurse99]

How do multispeciality ORs handle staff assignments? (all techs and circulators are trained in all areas of surgery)

[Marie_LPN]

We rotate people around, so people aren't stuck with the same surgeon all the time.

I rotate through different specialties, i wanted to do this to keep skills sharp. There are other people that do this as well, but there are some that fight tooth and nail to not scrub anything but one or two specialties.

[ORSmurf]

We are required to rotate to each specialty. Everyone has their favorite area, but they try to keep the schedule as fair as possible and everyone has to be flexible, like it or not. It's a good idea to be comfortable with everything since when you're on call, you must be able to handle whatever comes in!

[Marie_LPN]

It's a good idea to be comfortable with everything since when you're on call, you must be able to handle whatever comes in!

Wish everyone i worked with felt that way.

[staceyp413]

I make the assignments each day and like the post above I feel that if you're on call to do everything you need to know how to do it all. I do try to rotate things around to keep it fair and it doesn't take long to figure out each person's favorites. I also try to mix it up with our more "difficult" surgeons and tough cases as to not burnout staff (some weeks this is a bit difficult).
I also try to give the surgeon's their favorite nurses and/or techs if they've been tough for others to work with in order to get them back on track as well so that we give the patient the best care we can and keeping staff and docs happy while doing so

[MissJoRN]

ditto on everything Marie said... and those tooth and nail fighters are really good at trading away their call anyway! Help us all the day they can't, though!

[Marie_LPN]

I got stuck with one of those one-trick ponies last night. First thing she said (like she had SO many times before) soon as we got in the locker room was "I don't know how to scrub on hemi-hips. I've never even seen the sets." Nevermind she had ten YEARS more experience. I mean, how in the WORLD can someone work in an OR that does ortho and not see at least ONE hemi-hip in TEN years.

I said "First time for everything. I'll open all the stuff up, you scrub and set up". "But i don't know how". I said "Well when do you plan on learning?" and walked off.

She went to the supervisor about it this morning. Apparently the supervisor's reaction was "Well, after 10 years, it was way past time to learn, ya think?"

[MissJoRN]

Originally Posted by Marie_LPN

I said "First time for everything. I'll open all the stuff up, you scrub and set up". "But i don't know how". I said "Well when do you plan on learning?" and walked off.

You are my hero!