OR Pet peeves

Specialties Operating Room

Published

  • Specializes in Med-Surg;Rehab;Gerontology; Now OR.

You are reading page 6 of OR Pet peeves

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN

1 Article; 2,543 Posts

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

Oh that is awful! Poor girl!

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN

1 Article; 2,543 Posts

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
I am an experienced OR RN and I work with amazing team members... If I hear "CAN YOU PLEASE GET SOMEBODY IN HERE THAT KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING!" from another surgeon who is upset because of something he did... I am going to reply, "LIKE WHO SIR? YOUR PARTNER?" LOL

My peeve would be working hard every single day, every single case only to be told, "IT'S NOT HARD PEOPLE. A MONKEY COULD DO YOUR JOB.". Really, because you had to wait for your unexpected need while I run down the hall and retrieve your request?

This happens almost everyday in my OR. It is so demeaning! I start to wonder if I should be getting tips at the end of the day, because my nursing degree seems to be worthless, but thank goodness I learned how to multi-task and gopher while I was a waitress during nursing school!;)

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN

1 Article; 2,543 Posts

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
Med students and residents who don't introduce themselves or write their name on the board. They then proceed to scrub and look shocked and annoyed when you don't magically produce their gloves from the field.

Free people who think their one and only job is to provide breaks and lunch. How about giving a hand turning over rooms, making rounds to see what we need, throwing scopes in the steris, pulling extras for our cases instead of sitting on your butt at the desk? And these same underachievers are the free people almost all of the time :banghead:

Patients who make it all the way to the holding area without consents, power of attorneys, ucgs/hcgs, etc...

I could think of so many more....

The free people who are underachievers! You are so right! I used to work at a very nice hospital in Asheville NC when I was a traveler, and EVERYONE helped with the turnover-including the nurse manager, the free people, the team leaders...and that is why they consistently had 8 minute turnover times. It was great.

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN

1 Article; 2,543 Posts

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
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?

Oh my goodness! I thought this just happened at my hospital! Sorry that this happens to you, but I am glad to know I am not the only one that feels this way. It is frustrating!

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN

1 Article; 2,543 Posts

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
"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 hate the beeper too. From years of having to deal with this issue, I have finally found a way to handle it. I tell the attendings and the residents when they hand me their pagers that since I am experienced and trained, I can look at the page and figure out if it is worthy of my interrupting their time. I stress that their focus is on SURGERY, and not the daggum pager, and that I will alert the person paging them that the doc will call back in x amount of time. When a page comes through and it is obviously a personal page and the doc tells me to call back this person, I politely tell them that they can pay me an additional "Personal Secretary" salary if they would like for me to relay personal messages during surgery when I am trying to do my circulating duties. That usually gets them trained!;)

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN

1 Article; 2,543 Posts

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
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:

OK, wow, that takes the cake! "Um...for a bowel resection? Why don't we try local first, then we can move on to ether." :clown:

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN

1 Article; 2,543 Posts

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
OR Pet Peeves...

GYN surgeons who ask for my opinion....(im a surg tech with 11 yrs experience..going to nursing schoool.) Really I dont get paid enough to offer my opinions.

Surg. tech who actually give doctors their opinion...without the doctors asking for it. YIKES!

Nurses who string the bear hugger cord across the room..so that every time I move my back table my NACL spill all over.

Nurses who put the kick bucket between me and my back table...so I trip over it.

I have more ..but I will post later. Hope this made you laugh.

PS...I work with one of the best circulators who on most days can answer the phone...the doctors phone and grabs a pager..all with a smile on her face...

I work with a tech that tells the docs what to do...and she hasn't even been a tech for very long. Kind of embarrassing for her, but she doesn't seem to get it. She will actually tell them that they are doing the procedure WRONG! SMH.

mercys

25 Posts

As a Or Tech I have to say you are right about the card sometimes. But I find that I can open supplys as I read the card,Im allset. But then Dr asks for something not on card,CS has changed the setup pack and does not have everything.We use complete packs for all cases,but we also get supplys from our outpatient area. Their supplys are not same as ours.When they pick case it can be different.EX for small cases they use dressing sponge for case,go figure,guess its cheaper.No basins in pack.When in a hurry I dont always catch this. My Peeve,nurses that wear disp gloves to circ a funky case. But they do not change them,chart get supplys. For crying out loud,just keep your hands bare,at least you will use cleanser after each touching. Dont touch pen,papers,etc with those gloves. And dont get me started on anest. Wear disp gloves for funk case. But keep them on and dig through your anest cart.Oh yeah thats ok. And what about handing off such as chest drain container. Does anyone wipe them after they have been transferred to floor. My gloves are contaminated,and nurse picking up drain when pt is moved Yuk.I could go on and on about break in technique,but some co-workers just do not get it.

nitenite

97 Posts

When monitors aren't hooked up right.

Argo

1,221 Posts

Specializes in Peri-Op.

I hate when people pilfer suplies and equipment out of my heart or vascular room. When you get called in for an emergency heart or ruptured AAA, its an emergency.... The general OR staff think a broken wrist or lap chole is an emergency...... If we leave the room ready to roll, only needing tohave the packs opened theres a reason for it..... With a lap chole or appy or whatever you can literally roll the patient in the room and be able to acquire whats needed for the case in 5 minutes.... monitor/bovie/suction/basic lap chole pack or whatever the case is.... They arent rolling down the hall with a defib/checking blood/balloon pumps/full monitoring/doing chest compressions/bagging.... you get the point...

Also hate the house supers that dont know anything when they call you at 2am and wake you up.....

Me- Hello?

Them - you have a case, patient coming in through the emergency room.

me - has a surgeon seen them yet, have you called anesthesia, have you called the rest of the surgical team....

Them- no, the ER doctor told us to call surgery so I called you

Me- you have got to be kidding me, they have not had a surgeon consult?

THem - do they need it?

Me - Call me when you get your stuff straight, follow my previous questioning to find your route to success, CLICK

Then they never call you back, patients FX was approximated well enough.... The abdominal pain wasnt gallbladder, just gas..... you get the picture....

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN

1 Article; 2,543 Posts

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

Me - Call me when you get your stuff straight, follow my previous questioning to find your route to success, CLICK

I am going to use this one, Argo! Funny!!!

BridgetJones

82 Posts

Specializes in LTAC, OR.

When a surgeon or resident's pager goes off the second they scrub and they want you to fish it out of their back pocket and answer it before you do anything else.

Surgeons who bug me about answering their pager and then sigh and roll their eyes when the field doesn't have such-and-such and of course I would have taken care of it had I not been answering their pager.

In the middle of a TEF repair while I'm at the head of the bed drawing up atropine for the anesthesiologist while the baby's sats keep dropping into the 50s, the resident says, "Can you check my beeper?" AAAHHHH SERIOUSLY! Sometimes I think they are only tuned into one thing!

Anesthesiologists who can't find their own stupid lead. They have to ask me to go get it right as the tech and I are draping the C-arm and hooking things up. You would think they would have some time to go get it themselves while they're tapping their foot waiting to bring the patient in.

Anesthesiologists who look up from their crossword and ask me if I've called PACU while I'm busy putting in orders for cultures. Last time I checked, the circulator was not the only person in the room who knew how to use a phone!

Techs who think that they run the room.

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