What would you do...?

Specialties Operating Room

Published

We had a man in for a hernia repair yesterday. Not an inguinal hernia but upper gastric...about 2-3 inches above the navel. The warming blanket was on and after removing his gown from under the blanket, I noticed that he was wearing underwear. I mentioned that to the surgeon he said "it's ok, we're not going down that far". I wasn't sure if he said that for the pts. benefit because he was still awake at this point. I didn't say anything else. I was thinking of asking again when the pt. was under but changed my mind. Prepping was a bit more difficult than it had to be but we managed. No foley but prepping from nipple to navel where the shorts had to be moved aside to avoid getting the color changed from gray to "betadine purple". I'm only 8 months into this and haven't seen it before. What would you have done...? :nono:

Specializes in surgical, emergency.

Paper undies??? Pass,,,,sound itchy.

I'll stand by what I said earlier. If they are not in my way, I tend to leave them alone.

Again, if they are in the way, or even possibly in my way, I'll ask them to take them off.

If I do leave 'em, I'll ask if they are going to stress over soiling them, or getting them cut off. If they have issues,,,off they come.

Jewelry comes off, absolutely rings on operative side, NO bracelets or necklaces!!! Jewerly can get lost, damaged, cause circulation impairment, or alternative ground sites. Worst case, the ring gets caught on somthing and rips the ring off taking skin and/or a finger too. But I've never seen that happen.

Anyone in my "leave "em alone" corner???:chuckle

Mike

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in OR.

Tonight at work we got a patient from the ER who had a colonoscopy yesterday and they thought she may have been perforated. The patient was brought right to the room and was completely dressed. I'm talking jeans, shirt underwear, the works. She said that the nurses in the ER told her she didn't need to take her clothes off!:confused: They have a habit of sending up patients without proper paperwork, documentation etc. but this was ridiculous.

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

Our ER is extremely bad about this. I could see it if they were busy, but they haven't been lately, surprisingly.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Tonight at work we got a patient from the ER who had a colonoscopy yesterday and they thought she may have been perforated. The patient was brought right to the room and was completely dressed. I'm talking jeans, shirt underwear, the works. She said that the nurses in the ER told her she didn't need to take her clothes off!:confused: They have a habit of sending up patients without proper paperwork, documentation etc. but this was ridiculous.

I could probably deal with the need to get the pt. into a gown but without paperwork or documentation...umm...are you supposed to take verbal instructions from the pt....? Heck, if you give them a local, they could even assist with the procedure.:lol2:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I could probably deal with the need to get the pt. into a gown but without paperwork or documentation...umm...are you supposed to take verbal instructions from the pt....? Heck, if you give them a local, they could even assist with the procedure.:lol2:

Nursing shortage solved! "Mr Smith, reach up here and hold this deaver..."

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

Heck, make their arm be the post for the Bookwalter.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Heck, make their arm be the post for the Bookwalter.

Perfect plan! Next time we have an emergency lap to open conversion and I'm running dow the hall carrying that d:angryfire thing, it will be so much lighter!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment