OR Pet peeves

Specialties Operating Room

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Having worked in the OR for years, have you developed any pet peeve? Stuff co-workers do that bugs you...daily situations that irritate you? I'm really easy going most of the time but on a looong busy day, there are things that bugs me.

* anesthesiologist on your tail, "Can we come to the OR with the next patient now? , knowing that you literally just came from PACU dropping your last patient, you haven't even been back to the room yet, people are still cleaning. We are a teaching hospital so they work in tandem, resident or fellow goes to PACU with the last patient, attending goes to see the next patient.

*variation on the first one, they actually brought the patient back to the OR and you haven't seen them yet, haven't checked the paperworks or they brought the patient, you've seen them BUT you are just about to open the OR pack with the tech.

* another variation, you are in an ENT room cruising along with BMT's and T&A's with like 5-10 min turnovers and then you have a FESS or a Tympanomastoidectomy next and the anesthesiologist don't seem to understand why you need more time to set up!

Okay ,enough with the Anesthesiology bashing :), I do love 'em and those that work with me enough knows not to do these type of nonsense.

* a surprise not indicated on the schedule, you go see the patient after you've set up the room for an open case and the consent says Laparoscopic. Then you run back to the room, call for the laparoscopy cart and grab the video monitor etc.

* a multi specialty procedure with about 4-6 surgeons and the pagers are going off non stop. :banghead:

* a surgeon, the moment the pager goes off---what is it? who is paging me? then you relay the info from the floor nurse paging and the surgeon goes into a tirade about why he was paged in the first place for something so trivial.... lol...

* a tech who asks for sutures one at a time...sometimes this is from inexperience so I try not to be grumpy. I'm not a lazy circulator by any means but it would help if you look how big your incision is and you know you are gonna need more than 1 suture so I can go on with the rest of my circulating tasks.

* a break person who immediately writes their time in when they see you while you are still giving them report. Do you ever have Break Nazis in your OR? Not a minute late or you get a page or a lecture.

* a charge nurse who forgets to assign another nurse to relieve you at the end of your shift or who just expects you to finish your case and does not tell you that there was no one else available. (happened in some traveling assignments I had).

That's all I can think of now. Please share yours.

My biggest pet peeve is getting in the grove with my team, my room is all set, I've thought out my case, everythings good to go, then I get pulled to another case. I'm told so & so doesn't work with certain Docs, or they don't do that speciality. Me, I do everything, but why do my co-workers (who take call) not have to do somethings. What happens if an ortho case comes in on Sat. night?

Specializes in OR, community nursing.

"a surgeon, the moment the pager goes off---what is it? who is paging me? then you relay the info from the floor nurse paging and the surgeon goes into a tirade about why he was paged in the first place for something so trivial.... lol..."

Oh, I can't stand the beeper. I also feel bad for the person who is paging the resident or surgeon. Most of the time, they are floor nurses who don't know that we are in the middle of an operation (no matter how many times I told them). It seems that the urgent or not urgent issue never gets resolved most of the time, but it takes away the attention and focus on the surgery at hand.

Specializes in OB/GYN, Operating Room.

ok everyone. i have the all time killer going on right now. as the departmets educator i was a silly person and made the stupid choice to take weekend admistriative call. (really dumb move-but i do pay the price, even if i do get to say no alot) it's sunday morning and it is now convienent for doctors to do surgery. we had 3 surgeries boarded to start the day and have only completed the first one. that one was done at 9:00 am. (it's now 12:10 pm) and it is now time to play the game with the "orthopoops" oh sorry, i meant the orthopedics surgeons:clown:.:jester: . it's 3 hours later and 40 phone calls between the or crew and me, and we still haven't started a case. what are the problems: patient isn't cleared- internist isn't coming in till "later", have to wait for the family-they will be here in an hour or two, oops 1st surgeon :clown: now having breakfast-second surgeon :jester: on phone screaming & declaring his bipolar hip that has been waiting for 3 days is now an emergency- "i"m here and ready and he's not, do me first, if i can't go now i'm calling the ceo and then my wife, you can deal with both of them if i can't go right now" oh be still my heart- first let me call your wife, i'm sure we can compare notes about what an a** hole you are, and the ceo-great we are on first name bases after all and i can't wait to tell him my story either. my next thought is "i'll do you first" after i have killed the mda :yeah: who won't help make a decision to save his soul, 1st surgeon "get me a second crew now:crying2: my case is an emergency too", (this pateint was admitted on monday- real emergency) now i again make 40 more phone calls, have a ****** off staff for bothering them, & i can only get the pleassure to tell him :chuckle nobody is answering the phone, or they are hanging up on me or that they said "it's sunday and i have my own life, i'll see you tomorrow", this of course is the best part. now for my complaint i have just wasted 4 hours of my time, and my teenage son wants to kill me because all the phone calls got him up 2 hours earlier than he wanted to get up, and now i wonder why i'm doing this job, because this is the real killer-either of these could have been done on friday, but no i had to send staff home on low census.

Specializes in surgical, emergency.
"a surgeon, the moment the pager goes off---what is it? who is paging me? then you relay the info from the floor nurse paging and the surgeon goes into a tirade about why he was paged in the first place for something so trivial.... lol..."

Oh, I can't stand the beeper. I also feel bad for the person who is paging the resident or surgeon. Most of the time, they are floor nurses who don't know that we are in the middle of an operation (no matter how many times I told them). It seems that the urgent or not urgent issue never gets resolved most of the time, but it takes away the attention and focus on the surgery at hand.

I hear you about the beeper!! I call them "table proximity alarms". The closer the surgeon gets to the OR table, the more likely they'll go off.

Unless it's STAT, I have this pt to take care of first,,,when I get a second, I will check on it. Likely I answer faster than that doc does anyway!!

Mike

Specializes in Perioperative; Gyn-Onc.
Having worked in the OR for years, have you developed any pet peeve?

* a charge nurse who forgets to assign another nurse to relieve you at the end of your shift or who just expects you to finish your case and does not tell you that there was no one else available. (happened in some traveling assignments I had).

How about the charge nurse who forgets to assign lunch relief for you and your tech?? This happens all too often ....

Specializes in OR.

How about when the OR manager puts up a "go home early" list because it's slow. Then she sends so many people home that there's noone left to give breaks or lunches :no:

Ok, I got a pet peeve. Scrub techs that pretend their instruments are a pair of drumsticks during cases, rather than paying attention to watch is going on during the case. Surgeons have had to tell them more than once to pay attention to what is going on.

Specializes in CST in general surgery, LDRs, & podiatry.
ok, i got a pet peeve. scrub techs that pretend their instruments are a pair of drumsticks during cases, rather than paying attention to watch is going on during the case. surgeons have had to tell them more than once to pay attention to what is going on.

shame on them. :eek: speaking as a cst, i am embarassed to hear this. :nono:they need their knuckles rapped with a deaver retractor for such behavior. drumsticks indeed........ :no:

Specializes in Operating Room.

How about: The box on the desk labeled "Dr Blank's LOOPS." For crying out loud, its LOUPES:banghead:! Ok, so I'm a little OCD, lol!:nurse:

Specializes in Perioperative; Gyn-Onc.

Another pet peeve of mine...

I've stocked my room and grabbed all of the supplies I need for my entire line-up... then one of my cases finishes late, delaying all the TF's. To "help me out," the charge decides to open my next case in another room. I like to open my own cases and get my own equipment so I know what I have in the room. The new room is usually NOT stocked so I end up running for things I shouldn't have to run for (mastisol, 4x4's, rays, etc.).

Opening a new room usually doesn't save much in turn-around time, so just leave me where I am!! :eek:

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

The us vs. them attitudes from some people. I'm talking about the tech vs. nurse crap. The job(s) are stressful enough without the i'm-better/more-educated/more-trained-to-do-XYZ crap. Everyone's got a job, everyone's role is important.

The whole anesthesia-cracking-the-whip crap. Anesthesia may call to holler that they're en route, doesn't mean i'm answering the phone if i ain't ready.

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

House supervisors who call you and don't know anything about the call case or who to call. I recently had one ask me for a bowel resection, "Do you need anesthesia for this?" Where do they find these people? :no:

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