What do you love about the OR? & what do you hate?

Specialties Operating Room

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Specializes in Peri-op/Sub-Acute ANP.

To give you a little perspective about how technically challenging the OR is, at my hospital the OR nurse orientation is 6 months. It is only 3 months for our ICU, which is the second longest orientation in our facility. There is a HUGE amount of detail that you need to know in the OR, it is a very fluid environment where you have to live (or die) by the seat of your pants. It is not for everyone, but if you can learn vast amounts of information and think on your feet, you will never find another environment quite like it.

I understand how challenging it is to be in the OR.. How do i know if I'm fit to be one? aside from my eagerness and interest on the specialization.

maeyken

174 Posts

Specializes in Operating Room (and a bit of med/surg).
I understand how challenging it is to be in the OR.. How do i know if I'm fit to be one? aside from my eagerness and interest on the specialization.

One way to get a feel for the environment would be to see if you can shadow an OR nurse for a day- just to see what all goes into the job.

For me, just observing a few cases during nursing school was enough for me to be really interested in OR nursing, and when an opportunity arose I jumped at the chance. I have absolutely no regrets... I love my job! (most days!!!) I have been there 3.5 years now. Before that I worked on a GI/Gen Surg floor... I could do the job but I didn't love it. I am so glad I left and went to the OR.

I worked in the medical and surgical floor and i hated it! My problem is how to get to OR when i have no experience working in that area. :( I requested for a transfer in my previous hospital but it wasn't granted, perhaps it was due to my lack of experience.

cinn05

7 Posts

When I interviewed for an OR position after only having worked in NICU, the manager broke it down like this. She said OR nursing was not only a specialty but was like no other kind of nursing. She said if you like bedside nursing, the OR is not for you. She really wanted me to think on it and insisted on me shadowing in the OR before making a decision that would involve a 6 month orientation period.

There is minimal hands-on patient care... the nursing involved is much more big picture oriented despite the fact that the knowledge you need is incredibly detailed. You definitely have to be able to not only work with a wide variety of personalities and job descriptions, but do so face to face in an immediate setting under all the stress of high expectations in situations that are sometimes critical to the well-being and life of the patient. You have to be able to be confident in your skills and role and be able to stand up to other team members - especially with more training and education than yourself (read DOCTORS) - to enforce policy and principles that ensure the safety of your patient.

Perhaps a downside that I haven't heard mentioned is this: I feel like I'm losing some pathophysiology knowledge and meds knowledge after being in the OR a while. However, I have definitely picked up some other patho knowledge in certain specialties after reading a million H&Ps. And I have definitely lost some skills such as IVs, lab draws, etc. and it's been forever since I've had to insert or maintain NG/OG tubes. However, I'm excellent with a Foley. :)

I do think the best aspect is having only one patient at a time and usually seeing an immediate positive effect from your work every day (vision corrected, pain relieved, cancer removed [or not found!], faces reconstructed, mobility restored, etc.).

Talia1981

18 Posts

Love: 95% of all weekends and holidays off, one sleeping patient, hovermats, no call bells, one simple chart to fill, no chasing down dr's for petty orders, no family, no commodes, no feeding

hate:answering pages, techs that think nursing is too easy, chasing people for signatures, the feeling of being rushed by a surgeon that needs to make his tee time, wierd surgeons that can't communicate properly

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