OR Pet peeves

Specialties Operating Room

Published

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.

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

I have threatened on more than one occasion to autoclave the pager.

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

People who don't clean up after themselves- throwing scrub sponges in the sink instead of the trash can that has a convenient foot pedal, leaving equipment from the first case in the room (even though there was a break in the day) for the relief team to clean up, leaving a used suction in the room, etc.

"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..."

She's on drugs...

Scrub techs not opening their stuff, definitely up there. Scrub techs who don't think the circ has anything better to do than work for them, hates seeing them talk to the CRNA, surgeon, etc. Scrubs who drop everything so there stuff has to be flashed or more stuff opened. Basically all passive aggressive scrubs with RN envy. :nono:

CRNAs who are very anal and give inservices on everything as if you are a retard. "Hold cricoid until I say let go" but then another one says "Look, when I inflate the cuff you need to let go!" The patient tries to tell you something while you are holding O2 on induction so you lift the mask a little to hear them and the CRNA starts screaming like you just ripped out an art line or something. Chill OUT!! There's more than one way to wash a pot.

The way some people count can be confusing. Why, why, why do people insist on writing 1 + 2 = 3? An "=" when sloppily written can look like 1 + 2 + 3. AORN needs to set a rule on this mistake which is made universally! We should know how to add so stop adding already unless there will be no more sutures used on the case!

And last but not least wanting stuff not on the preference card and then getting ****** that it wasn't there to begin with. I am a traveler and I don't know what they want if it ain't on the menu! I am working on my ESP but it is taking a little longer than I would like. Be patient.

(steps down from soap box)

Specializes in LTAC, OR.

When anesthesia asks you to get them another bag of LR when you're all the way across the room doing something else. Seriously, if the patient is stable they can get it themselves!

"CRNAs who are very anal and give inservices on everything as if you are a retard. "Hold cricoid until I say let go" but then another one says "Look, when I inflate the cuff you need to let go!" The patient tries to tell you something while you are holding O2 on induction so you lift the mask a little to hear them and the CRNA starts screaming like you just ripped out an art line or something. Chill OUT!! There's more than one way to wash a pot. "

OMG you must work with the same boys I do! This just happened to me last week, I don't know why but the CRNA's tend to get on my nerves often. What do they learn in their extra training that gives them this "I'm holier than God complex". Seriously YOU'RE A NURSE, get your own paperwork, your own old records, attach the patient to the monitor yourself and oh..DO NOT wave the leads in my face cause I will just tell you "Those are EKG leads, they go on the patient". Aye aye aye

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.
"CRNAs who are very anal and give inservices on everything as if you are a retard. "Hold cricoid until I say let go" but then another one says "Look, when I inflate the cuff you need to let go!" The patient tries to tell you something while you are holding O2 on induction so you lift the mask a little to hear them and the CRNA starts screaming like you just ripped out an art line or something. Chill OUT!! There's more than one way to wash a pot. "

OMG you must work with the same boys I do! This just happened to me last week, I don't know why but the CRNA's tend to get on my nerves often. What do they learn in their extra training that gives them this "I'm holier than God complex". Seriously YOU'RE A NURSE, get your own paperwork, your own old records, attach the patient to the monitor yourself and oh..DO NOT wave the leads in my face cause I will just tell you "Those are EKG leads, they go on the patient". Aye aye aye

I recently worked with a very...um...unusual CRNA. She is over-the-top controlling and if the surgeons ask her how the pt is doing, she will actually turn the monitor so they can't see the VS. One day after the case was done and we were emerging, the anesthesiologist was teaching me about neck anatomy. He lectured and then asked me to feel certain muscles on the right side of the neck. He and I were standing on the left side of the pt. When I reached over to palpate the muscle, the CRNA *SWATTED* my hand away and said that the pt could accuse me of sexual harrassment because I could possibly bump her breast as I was leaning over. The -ologist and I looked at each other dumbfounded, and I told the CRNA that she was WAAAYY out of line and that we would discuss this with the medical director. I saw the -ologist speaking to her in the recovery area and he was not happy. When we were starting the next case, she pulled me out in the hall and apologized profusely. I think that she had forgotten to take her meds that day. Weird.

Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Just need to vent a little after tonight.

Pet peeve #1 today: People who expect you to say yes to every request. If you ask me to switch call with you for tonight, and I say no, sorry, the conversation should end there. It is rude to then ask "Well, why not?" You signed up for the call (I checked- it wasn't assigned to you because no one else signed up for it.) A failure to plan on your end does not constitute an emergency on my end, and I am under no obligation whatsoever to cover your call because you don't want it. My personal life is also just that- personal and therefore absolutely none of your business. Just because I'm young, single, and childless doesn't mean I don't have a personal life.

Pet peeve #2: People who just log you off the computer instead of asking if you're done. My relief has done this constantly ever since they took the third shift position. Just because my butt isn't in the chair doesn't mean I wasn't doing something work related, such as trying to run the shift report and got interrupted by a call from the floor needing something.

Pet peeve #3: Main supply room personnel who probably couldn't find their own backside with a flashlight and a map, let alone the supplies a nursing unit is calling you for. When they call us for it, we know you have it- because we call you for said supplies when we run out.

Pet peeve #4: People who don't clean up after themselves. I know that thyroid was the first case of the day in your room, because we set it up for you. Then you had a nice big gap while your surgeon did a longer case in another room. Why in the world was the thyroid rest not returned to where it belongs during that time?

Whew, I feel better now! Hoping for a better day tomorrow.

Lazy medical students who stand there and watch the nurse do everything.... um your here to learn so you should help me! Even doctors who just leave the room and expect me to put this 300 lbs lady legs up in stirr ups by myself! REALLY!!

Yes, my #1 pet peeve is a couple scrubs that I work with who think they are God.

I am a nurse who everytime we set up and before I get the patient, I ask anesthesia if they are ready, and I ask the scrub if I can get them anything before I go.

There is one in particular who EVERYTIME it doesn't matter if it is a simple ear tube case or a big ortho case, there is something she needs me to open the minute I walk in the door with my patient. The other day I brought in a screaming child.. and the minute I got the child onto the bed, holding her down while trying to put on monitors while anesthesia gassed, she asked me in a demeaning tone to get her three items from the case cart.... AAAARRRRGHHHHHHH!!!!!! AND IT GET'S BETTER.... I told her that I would get them for her when I could.... and a minute later when I was trying to get the patient situated and positioned and warmed up..... she goes... "ummm, can you please get the stuff I asked for?" AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't ask me during this time... and for God's sake I've got my priorities sorry you are not one of them right now!

I am also one of those nurses who will make sure the scrub has things like local medication on the table and saline.... ect. before we start the case. There are those couple of scrubs... I will be working with them one day on five cases and each and every time they tell me they need saline and local when I come into the room... like I am stupid or something argh.

And those in CSPD.... I know they work hard but when we don't have stuff we need for cases it becomes a patient safety issue. We constantly have instruments missing from our trays, wrong instruments, ect. Also our case carts aren't completed many times..... and they don't even bother letting us know

The other day we had 12 cataract cases. They go by super fast. Our first three cases went by smoothly like usual. When setting up for the fourth patient we noticed our Phaco tubing kit was missing from the case cart (ummm... it's impossible to do a cataract without it) We called CSPD and who said that they did not have anymore because they weren't ordered. :eek: Okay stop right there..... NO ONE EVEN BOTHERED to inform us... now there are eight patients admitted already ready to go with IV's in.... and you didn't bother to tell us that the most important piece of equipment was not ordered like it was no big deal. Luckily, we were able to scramble and call several other surgery centers to see if they had any we could buy from them.... and ONE did.... lucky.

Other than that.... I love being a surgical nurse!!!!

Surgeons with big egos who think everyone worships the ground they walk on. ****.

Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

Glad this thread got re-vitalized. I have some things to add:

1. You are relieving the circulator for shift change. The case has been going for 4-5 hours, the kickbucket is so full that sponges are running over the top, specimens have been released by the surgeon to take off the field, yet there they sit on the backtable, nothing charted, labeled, no path slip filled out, no dressings have been pulled, family hasn't been updated in 3 hours and the circulator is on the computer shopping for shoes.

2. Staff who walk into your room and completely disregard the big sign on the door that reads "Total Joint Case in Progress. Do not enter." to steal suction tubing because the sterile core was 4 steps too far for them to walk, and then without looking up, the surgeon yells at YOU because you weren't monitoring traffic, not realizing that you were in the midst of changing out the bag of irrigation so he wouldn't yell at you for not paying attention to the quickly decreasing level of current irrigation fluid.

3. Reps that try to make small talk with you while you are concentrating on charting.

4. Being assured by your manager that the new implant the surgeon needs for the next case should be in the Surgical Office because he faxed the order yesterday, but when you call the office, nobody knows what in the heck you are talking about, and your manager has been at lunch for the last hour. You can't bring the pt back without laying eyes on the implant, so the surgeon rants, anesthesia rolls their eyes and sighs, and the scrub tech rips his gown off and throws his gloves on the floor, muttering about how LATE he is going to be for his golf game this afternoon. The pre-op nurse calls you again asking why the pt is still in holding because the pt is getting antsy. You try for the 5th time to get in touch with your manager, he finally barges into the room, out of breath, casts a disgusted look at you and says in the snottiest tone he can muster, "I made it a point to tell you that the implant is in the office. Why didn't you call them? I figured you'd be able to do that without my assistance." Then everyone looks at you like you are the Elephant Man on crack while the disgusted manager picks up the phone, calls the office and turns white when the office manager says that he should have waited for the fax to actually go through before leaving early the previous day. Thanks for that, jackwagon.

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