Circulators

Ask the same doc if he would rather have the nurse if she also had just as much experience scrubbing. Its not the scrub tech vs nurse thing, its a who knows how to scrub vs who doesnt.

Mercy this is one hotly debated topic!

Mercy this is one hotly debated topic!

As an OR nurse I have some observations. I'm not an ST or CST nor am I OJT. I was formally trained in school along with clinicals in patient focused care, which is what I provide in the OR. True, I had to learn specifics to the OR environment once there and would have had to do the same environment specific care in any area of nursing I chose to practice. The ST/CST was trained in specific instrumentation, sterile field/technique, procedure, etc. all of which are specific to the OR environment and truly not adaptable to another environment. The training is technique oriented for the most part. Which one is more important? You can't have one and not the other, the patient and surgical team require both. I would give my eye teeth for some of my techs, they are invaluable. The ones I wouldn't are those who have made it a point to tell me that in their mind the circulator is nothing more than a glorified typist and has no place in the OR, that there is nothing the circulator does that a tech can't do. Yet one of these same techs when I was concerned over a patient's low Na value stated she had no idea what that meant, I was talking Greek and furthermore, she didn't really care.

I make a point of thanking my techs personally, letting them know how much I value their expertise and input as well as how valuable they are to the team. The techs who have the above mentioned attitudes about circulators take that as 'acknowledgement of their superiority' in the OR setting and the lack of a need for a circulator. The techs who I find invaluable accept it with gratitude, acknowledge that we each contribute greatly to the patient's care and are both invaluable. The respect is mutual. I know they have knowledge of and can do things I have very little skill and likewise, they acknowledge I have knowledge and skills they lack. It isn't a competition. Furthermore, I am sure to let them know I appreciate their professionalism and teamwork. Those who are truly team members will go out of their way to help one another, tech or nurse.

That it surely is. But you can't come into a nursing forum and try to tell nurses their job is easily replaced or that their job can be done by anyone. Anytime someone goes to school or training to become something, and then you tell them they can be easily replaced by someone else, you're guaranteed to get into a highly intense discussion.

No doubt!!
That's exactly why I detest working with a couple of our techs. Recently these same two folks spend half the case as well as breaks and lunches carping about the pay difference between nurses and techs, telling us how it's so unfair that we make more yada yada. Hello, I could've gone to school to be a CST (might have liked it more just because I like being in the blood and gore grits of things) or I could've chosen to persue any number of careers that pay much more than what I get now and require little to no schooling but I know I'd hate it. The fact of the matter is I chose nursing because it still gets me in the door to patient care, faster than med school-which was my true first desire, has better pay than a CST and still is something I love. I guess I could complain how <insert profession requiring no education but pays $$$> make so much more than me and how it's unfair since I went to school and all but sheesh. I'm sorry, ok not really sorry, that they chose ST school instead of RN and now are paid less than I am. The pay difference has been what it is for much longer than they've been a tech so give it a rest, guess you should've chosen differently or at least be able to live with the choice.

Sorry, that was a rant that is not completely on topic. It is just another example of why I find it difficult to work with those couple of folks. It's gotten to the point where I'm having to get up and leave the break room or walk away from where ever else one of these folks are at just to get away from the caustic cloud perpetuated.