A Tech Made Me So Angry, I was ready to choke the tech (rant)

[Marie_LPN, RN]

I was scheduled to be the first assist in a general room today, a whole 8 hours of hernia repairs, which made for a good friday, since that surgeon's very fun to work with, and it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. A surg tech was assigned in the room as well.

It was up to her to set up the table and tray, since she would be the one working off of it (she sets it up according to our facility's 'preferred' set-up). And after the second case, i said "I'll open and set up if you want a break, and then all you'll have to do is count and run the table" and i scrubbed and set up the table and tray the way she normally does it.

Well it took all of 5 minutes to set up everything, and by then the pt. was brough in, given anesthesia, and the surgeon comes in, signs papers, goes out, scrubs, comes in and i assist him into gown and gloves. The tech followed him in after she scrubbed and i assisted her with gown and gloved. The circulator prepped, surgeon placed the sticky towels and i handed the surgeon the big drape (he perferred to place it himself).

The circulator set a standing platform the opposite side of the surgeon, which was PUT THERE for ME, yet this tech took it upon herself to stand up on that platform right across from Dr. M______ like SHE was going to assist!!!:angryfire I said "I need some space between you and the armboard, please, in order for me to assist Dr. M____". She said "I think it's my turn, since you're ALWAYS first on these cases". I said, "I'm scheduled as the first assist, you haven't been given the permission by your preceptor or any training to be the first, so please scoot over, since Dr. M_____ is ready to begin". She stepped down. She developed somewhat of an attitude during that case, i noticed. When i would asked for a retractor ("please?"), she slapped it in my hand so hard that it stung a few times. And a few times, when i would ask for a 'snap' (small Kelly clamp), i had to ask 3 times before she would finally slap one to my hand, yet if Dr. M asked for something, she handed it to him the proper way.

I didn't give her the satisfaction of knowing she ticked me off with that stunt, yet, when i went for my 'break', i took my break in the supervisor's office, explaining the situation. The circulator vouched for me, since she witnessed the whole thing. It was easy to figure out when the supervisor spoke with the tech, because the tech literally stuck her nose in the air when she would walk by me.

Majority of the techs at work are great, but still, it really ticked me off that someone would do that, and i have no idea what posesses people sometimes into think that they can do whatever they want to do.:angryfire :angryfire :angryfire

[USAFRN 13]

Duraprep, that reminds me of someone i worked with, who thought you could 'punch' the Duraprep ahead of time, so the surgeon wouldn't have to hit the end of it himself (she punched it 15 minutes before the pt. had gotten in the room). Needless to say, there was Duraprep over one end of the table, and the instruments on the table were messy and sticky.

Next morning we had an inservice on it.

I don't let anyone Duraprep either, although if it's a case that requires both Duraprep and paint sticks, i'll do one, and another nurse does the other.

that happened to me the other day! and the worst thing is that i really like to punch the duraprep myself. it's really a fun little release, you know?

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

I pretend it's someone's head lol.

As for the tech i was talking about in the first post, i hadn't worked with her since that day. And she was fired about a week ago. She kept doing things that she wasn't allowed to do, despite being told over and over NOT to. So it's no longer a problem :)

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

I pretend it's someone's head lol.

As for the tech i was talking about in the first post, i hadn't worked with her since that day. And she was fired about a week ago. She kept doing things that she wasn't allowed to do, despite being told over and over NOT to. So it's no longer a problem :)

[stevierae]

Give it a year, Marie--by that time I guarantee you will no longer WANT to "first assist" on 8 hours worth of hernias--mindless, mind-numbing (and carpal tunnel inducing!) work, for which you are not being compensated any extra $$$ (and, therefore, are being utilized as cheap labor for a surgeon who is too cheap to pay another physician, RNFA or PA the fee he or she rightfully deserves. You'll be refusing to do it, the way most of us would do. In most hospitals, as Carcha said, this lowly task--that is, simply holding retractors--is delegated to a medical student, who promptly uses the opportunity to catch up on lost sleep, if he can do so without getting caught (if he gets caught, he gets a sharp rap on the wrist with a Richardson, to jolt him awake.)

I put "first assist" in quotation marks because if all you are doing is retracting, you really are not first assisting. First assistants also suction, tie knots and close the wound, or at least they close skin. RNFAs and PAs also follow the patient post-op right up through and AFTER discharge, writing orders, making rounds, seeing them in clinic for post-op appointments, etc. etc.

Everything new is fun--for a year, then it gets really old, REALLY fast. I remember when my friend Al, working med surg right out of nursing school, told me "we get to do all sorts of fun stuff--you know, trach care and stuff." One year later, he was complaining about how everybody on their floor had trachs and he would do anything to get the he** off med-surg, he was so tired of trach care. It's all relative.

Carcha was right--the circulator, being in charge of the room, should have quietly stepped in and told your tech to knock off the passive aggressive behavior and pay attention to her back table and her Mayo stand--and allowed you to do what you were assigned to do, as well. You should not have had to be put in the place of even having that encounter with that tech--I don't think that was fair to you.

[stevierae]

Give it a year, Marie--by that time I guarantee you will no longer WANT to "first assist" on 8 hours worth of hernias--mindless, mind-numbing (and carpal tunnel inducing!) work, for which you are not being compensated any extra $$$ (and, therefore, are being utilized as cheap labor for a surgeon who is too cheap to pay another physician, RNFA or PA the fee he or she rightfully deserves. You'll be refusing to do it, the way most of us would do. In most hospitals, as Carcha said, this lowly task--that is, simply holding retractors--is delegated to a medical student, who promptly uses the opportunity to catch up on lost sleep, if he can do so without getting caught (if he gets caught, he gets a sharp rap on the wrist with a Richardson, to jolt him awake.)

I put "first assist" in quotation marks because if all you are doing is retracting, you really are not first assisting. First assistants also suction, tie knots and close the wound, or at least they close skin. RNFAs and PAs also follow the patient post-op right up through and AFTER discharge, writing orders, making rounds, seeing them in clinic for post-op appointments, etc. etc.

Everything new is fun--for a year, then it gets really old, REALLY fast. I remember when my friend Al, working med surg right out of nursing school, told me "we get to do all sorts of fun stuff--you know, trach care and stuff." One year later, he was complaining about how everybody on their floor had trachs and he would do anything to get the he** off med-surg, he was so tired of trach care. It's all relative.

Carcha was right--the circulator, being in charge of the room, should have quietly stepped in and told your tech to knock off the passive aggressive behavior and pay attention to her back table and her Mayo stand--and allowed you to do what you were assigned to do, as well. You should not have had to be put in the place of even having that encounter with that tech--I don't think that was fair to you.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

I happen to enjoy what i do, menial or not, lowly or not. Oh, well.

[carcha]

Marie, you use the term lowly, I would certaintly not use that term. I simply get fed up of the nursing profession being used when there is a medical shortage. Their duties get extended in the name of Progress when in reality its a joke. As a junior nurse I would perform the non vital tasks which a senior nurse would be "past", if I can use that expression. That way, I worked my way up to a senior level ensuring I could not run before I could walk. In the same way holding retractors is the task for junior doctors as they progress up the ladder to a senior level. To me its the same as the days we had to go into the sluice and clean a bedpan, inportant but not vital. Therefore when you described the scenario with the tech, can you imaging my how I would feel if I saw 2 nursing personnel fighting over a dirty bed pan. I am still amazed by it really.

[yasmine77]

Quote:

Originally Posted by carcha

I'm truly dumbfounded on this one imagining the whole scenario. Two adults fighting over who holds a retractor. Here only the junior doctor whose name no one knows performs that "vital duty", because the rest of us are busy performing nursing duties. If I had been the RN in that room I would have thrown the both of you out until you got some sense. The surgeon must have got a kick out of it though, the two of you carrying on.

My...I had to smile at this post. I can picture the writer leaning back in a velvet robe, in some languid pose, speaking with an accent as cultured as a pearl, then giving a mirthless, supercilious chuckle.

A bit arrogant, are we?

Cheers!

[rn/writer, RN]

This is a nearly three-year-old thread. Some of the participants no longer post here.

[RN Zeke]

Are surg techs allowed to be first assists??? She/he must have had something to prove by taking your spot. You could also mention this to his/her preceptor.

Yes, surgical Techs may depending on the facility allowing them to do so. They are some of the best out there to see and anticipate. But as as anything other apparently your institution may have a different policy. Is it on one case you scrub and the next you first assist? It is very common. Sorry for your bad experience, but glad to hear you stood your platform!!!!

[ewattsjt]

Old thread, why bring it back to life?

[RN Zeke]

This is a nearly three-year-old thread. Some of the participants no longer post here.

Maybe it would be a good idea to delete the old post, due to the negative response one is getting for reading it and posting on it! How would anyone know who is still active and who isn't? There are so many threads to read, I certainally don't have any way to keep up with who is on first and who is on second!

BYE