"Really...all I need is a bovie and a hemostat"

Specialties Operating Room

Published

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

Haven't you all heard this one before? The surgeon that just needs "15 minutes to do a quick I&D".

So you open a minor pack, open a minor tray and wait for the pt to roll in. The surgeon comes in, briefly glances at your table, pays attention during the Time Out, and then sits at the circulator's computer to write orders, dictate, follow up on labs, etc.

The pt is prepped, he goes out to scrub, comes back in to get gowned and gloved. You help him drape the pt and pull up your mayo stand. You have everything ready to go, and he says, "Oh. I need a doppler and an ultrasound machine."

So the circulator runs around madly trying to locate a doppler box, the ever elusive fancy new ultrasound machine, and calls central sterile for a probe. She comes back into the OR 10 minutes later, victorious in her search for the new ultrasound machine. Central sterile calls the room to inform the nurse that all of the probes are unsterile. So you have to wait for a sterile one.

The surgeon doesn't want to wait for a sterile probe for this fancy new ultrasound machine, so he asks for the old one. The circulator goes back out, looks everywhere for the old ultrasound machine, finally finds it after 10 more minutes of searching, gets a drape for the probe and sits down to chart.

"Can I please have a sitting stool?", requests the surgeon. The circulator gives up her stool, and stands while continuing to chart. "Can you please adjust my stool? It is too low." The circulator stops charting again to adjust the stool.

"I forgot to get some eye protection. Do you mind getting some for me?" The circulator is cussing the doc out in her mind, and gets the damned eye protection.

A harried resident rushes into the OR. The surgeon looks at the clock and asks why the resident decided to show up for a scheduled surgery 30 minutes late. The resident looks at the circulator accusingly, and says, "Well, if someone had PAGED me to let me KNOW that the pt was in the room, I would have been here on time!" To the surgeon's credit, he responds, "You are an R3. You know that surgery starts at 0730. It is YOUR responsibility to keep a pulse on when the pt arrives to the OR. I was here. Nobody paged me. So why should the circulator page YOU?" (I had to keep myself from clapping at this point.)

Ultrasound done, surgeon is ready to cut. Incision is made, exploration is underway. "Can I please have some 6-0 prolene? And can you please load it on my specialty Castro's?" The circulator runs out again in search of 6-0 prolene and calls central sterile for the specialty Castro's. We wait for 15 minutes while central sterile sends up the tray.

Oh dear, we hit a BIG bleeder. "Do you have a sterile tourniquet?" asks the surgeon quietly. The circulator goes out to find a tourniquet machine and the appropriate size tourniquet. 5 minutes later, she returns with the machine and asks the surgeon which size tourniquet he wants. "Oh, I think we have the bleeding controlled now. Don't bother."

The pt is VERY squirrely since he is having his procedure done under MAC. "Can I have some local please?" asks the surgeon. The circ returns with 0.25 Marcaine. "Um, can you please mix this with Lido 1% 1:1 with the Marcaine?" The circ goes back out to get the Lido.

Debridement begins, and we are coming down the home stretch. "I have been meaning to try that new bipolar that is on trial now. Do you think you can get that for me?" asks the surgeon to the circulator.

Not being able to stand this high maintenance charade one minute longer, I very 'un-PC like' responded, "Dude, you said you needed a bovie and a hemostat for this 15 minute case. You have been running the poor circulator to death. We have been in the OR for an hour now. Can you PLEASE land your plane?"

Moral of the story: NEVER believe a surgeon when he says that he can do ANYTHING in 15 minutes.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

So you work with Dr. Oh-by-the-way too?

Gotta love the ones who swear they are only doing a quick I&D- and then it turns into a total joint revision!

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Specializes in 2 years school nurse, 15 in the OR!.

LOVE THIS!

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You know when you hear "I just need..." it's going to be a mess.

My last one was "I just need 20 minutes and a screw driver". Ended up being a 3 hour neuro case.

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Specializes in Operating Room.
So you work with Dr. Oh-by-the-way too?

Gotta love the ones who swear they are only doing a quick I&D- and then it turns into a total joint revision!

Ha! I have had this exact thing happen!:D:uhoh3:
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Specializes in OR; Telemetry; PACU.
You know when you hear "I just need..." it's going to be a mess.

LOL!

I just CRINGE when I hear that as I scan the half empty room! ARGH!!

And there are some that just want ALL of the other's toys from the playground in the room. I know who they are and my coworkers will always get on me for bringing everything but the kitchen sink in for "just a ____"...uh, huh. BTDT. If it's present in the room, it seems that it's not wanted. :yeah:

Oy!

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Specializes in Peds- ICU.

I love it when they say "I just need.... Quick case. NEVER NEVER get ready to go on bypass!!

open all the trays.

:cool::cool:

Adam

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Specializes in CST in general surgery, LDRs, & podiatry.
LOL!

I just CRINGE when I hear that as I scan the half empty room! ARGH!!

And there are some that just want ALL of the other's toys from the playground in the room. I know who they are and my coworkers will always get on me for bringing everything but the kitchen sink in for "just a ____"...uh, huh. BTDT. If it's present in the room, it seems that it's not wanted. :yeah:

Oy!

I used to scrub at a small county hospital with 4 OR's, one of which was a dedicated eye/cataract room. So we usually just counted the other three. There was a female GYN surgeon who absolutely had to have every posssible instrument in the building for every single case, no matter how simple. She would actually come in the room early while the scrub was settting up to see if she might possibly think of something that wasn't already there. "Dr Kitchen Sink" was the running joke for her.

The circulators were sick unto death of running for, and opening up, everything she decided she wanted on a whim, "just in case" it might be needed immediately. We (scrubs) were sick of having to send half the department downstairs for processing after her cases, and possibly leaving other surgeons short of something for their own cases. Usually, if they wanted/needed something that wasn't available at the moment, they knew she had been there first! (Some things the scrub and circulator agreed to refuse to open, but have available in the room IF she needed - but almost never did - because we knew it would be needed for another case/doctor later on that day.)

One of the nurses came in one day with the little plastic kitchen sink out of her daughter's dollhouse. We wrapped it up and sent it through EO processing. When it came back, we took it in the room for her first case of the day. As soon as we got started with some simple thing or other, the nurse opened the lithtle pack and passed it to the scrub's mayo. "There - now you have everything you could possibly need for your case!" There surgeon looked at it, and laughed. "Yeah - my husband has always told me I'm high maintenance!"

From then on, she was a lot less demanding, and the "kitchen sink" was a subject of laughter from then on....

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I had a surgeon say the other day "I thought CSS said it would only take 30 minutes" I replied, "well I guess their time estimation is about is good as yours" I thought it was funny , but he didn't!

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Peds/O.R./Legal/cardiology.

I thought I missed the OR. Thanks for the reality check, Canes! HAHA!

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Specializes in NICU, ER, OR.

the kitchen sink???? priceless, i love it...

and my absolute , by far, worst phrase in the OR is "its just and I&D" it NEVERRRRRRRR is just an I & D!!!!!!! sometimes, the slick ones BOOK an I& D, knowing full well its NOT, just to get a time, oh say at 1030 t night..... but, they get away with it and they CAN do it, so they do......I so feel like printing the op and pinning it up in the breakroom...... so i have your permission? of course screen names will be omitted.... its just tooo true and tooo funny not to......

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
the kitchen sink???? priceless, i love it...

and my absolute , by far, worst phrase in the OR is "its just and I&D" it NEVERRRRRRRR is just an I & D!!!!!!! sometimes, the slick ones BOOK an I& D, knowing full well its NOT, just to get a time, oh say at 1030 t night..... but, they get away with it and they CAN do it, so they do......I so feel like printing the op and pinning it up in the breakroom...... so i have your permission? of course screen names will be omitted.... its just tooo true and tooo funny not to......

Go for it!

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