New to the OR

[nurse1805]

Hi all,

I have about 1 1/2 years experience in a rural hospital where I've done med/surg and ER. I've recently started working in the OR. I'm excited yet at the same time, nervous. Any tips/encouragement from those who have OR experience would be much appreciated!

[jeckrn, BSN, RN]

Just as when you went to the floor and the ER take in what everyone tells you and mold it into your own practice. If you see 2 totally different ways of doing things ask both RN's why they do the way they do. Then go to one of your resource books and look up the answer to see which one is correct. Both might be correct, (then use the one that is best for you), or both might be wrong. Have a thick skin, some surgeons are used to having things done their way without asking and as a new OR nurse you will not know this and they might get short tempered. Find out which doc's like to teach, ask questions of them on why they are doing something. But be sure to ask the question in a way that makes it come across and you wanting to know to improve your knowledge and not appear to question why they do it the way they are. There are other surgeons which you do not even ask question unless you need to know to do your part of the job, luckly this is not most surgeons that I have worked with. Good luck, always keep learning