advice needed

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · Oct 7, 2010

HI
I need some advice. I've been in the OR 2.5 years over a 3.5 year period. I just resigned from a hospital D/T a miserable working environment. I talked with other nurses there. One started the same time i did and she has 30 years in the OR and told me she was going leave D/T the same reasons. I was second guesing my abilities and discovered that the nurse with 30 years under her belt was feeling the same way. I wonder if i'm right for the OR I dont want to work if i'm going to feel as though i cant perform well. After a year there i just couldnt take being beaten down anymore. I didnt feel this way in my 1st OR. However, i wonder if its me as i dont think i should be feeling this way at this point. It breaks my heart to think of not being in the OR but i want to do whats best and if i'm not cut out for it i know i should i accept it and move on. Any feedback would be appeciated.
Thanks for reading

First of all, did you work in a community or a university OR? They are vastly different. Why did you leave the first OR job? With over 3 years of experience in the OR, I would think that you would be past the point of feeling as though you can't perform well. What were some of the experiences that you had that made you feel this way? Can you scrub and circulate efficiently? Which do you do better? What were your strong points?

Are the nurses in the OR making you feel badly about your performance? If that is the case, then I would move on. I have also been in this situation...my first OR position was in a community hospital and the nurses were downright mean to each other. Even going as far as to sabatoge each other. There was ZERO leadership skills, and I was aghast at the fact that my preceptor kept a checklist (the very first day I was in the OR) of all the things that I did wrong even though she had only taught me the very basics (i.e., stay away from the sterile field. Get your drug box at the beginning of the day. Pull your supplies.). At the end of the day, she went down the checklist and showed me that I had not positioned the patient right (she never showed me how to), that I didn't put on SCDs (I didn't even know where to find them), that I didn't check the temp in the room (where was the thermostat?) and that I didn't complete my list of charges (where in the chart was I supposed to do this? Guess?) I felt as if she should have given me at least a month of learning before she broke out the checklist. It was almost like she WANTED to see her students fail. I left there after only 3 months because I knew that I was a smart girl, but the teaching was extremely flawed. I found out later that this preceptor had just "inserted" herself as the nurse educator even though there was no such title at the hospital. She was eventually fired after a JCAHO visit.

When I went to my second OR job, the teaching was structured, and I learned a great deal. I was only in a room by myself when both my preceptor and I thought that I could fly comfortably. We reviewed every day and the nurses were very supportive of each other.

Don't leave your dream. Leave the job. Are there other opportunities for OR nurses near you? Good luck to you. You deserve better.

Argo · Oct 7, 2010

I agree with canesdukechick......

freespirit2 · Oct 8, 2010

Thanks for the advice... quite a few of the nurses were upset that i was leaving. I hadnt felt this uncertain of my abilities since i was in the peri opertive program! I had to watch my back as a couple scrubs that had been there awhile were deliberately trying to sabatoge things.

For instance telling me i was wasting my time getting certain equipment that i thought was needed, when i got it anyway she;d say 'well i've only been here 10 years but YOU would know better'! And sure enough it was needed... I was pretty stressed when i knew i had to work the ones that were like that. The nurses told me some scrubs were downright mean and nasty and made it harder on them. None of the nurses can stand working with those scrubs. There were some heavy politics going on there at the time.

It seemed the scrubs tried to run the room. An example i told a scrub to throw off her rays she had 30 and at least 15 dirty ones were on her back table. She refused. I called the charge nurse after i told her twice and was blatanty refused.(She also refused for my relief nurse) The charge nurse backed up the scrub right there in the room! Another example i told an SA to take his backpack out of the room (we were doing a total hip) he told me NO! I told him it was infection control issue and a Pt safety issue. He told me I did my job i told him and he said no... I went to the nurse educator and explained the situation. she told me NOT to start a conflict.

On the flip side when i mispronounced a word i'd was reported to the director! Also i was written up when anesthesia intubated a Pt prior to a time out, even though i told him to wait for the surgeon, his response he was just trying to 'expedite things'. So i couldnt take it anymore and that doesnt make for a good OR nurse. Many of the nurses were upset that i was leaving. I dont scrub but i'm organized and keep the flow going smoothly. I thought i circulated efficiently. I work hard and helped out other nurses anytime that i was not in a room. I think thats why even the travelers loved me... my 1st OR i had no trouble things went well there... i just am thinking hard on it... thanks for your insights. I see i posted the same reply twice!! Cant figure out how to delete it...

freespirit2 · Oct 8, 2010

Posted the same thing twice think if i edit and delete most of it i can spare ya'll

mactheknife · Oct 25, 2010

I agree, move on. There is such a shortage of nurses in the world we don't need to waste our time working in places like that. I wish there was a way to name and shame ORs like that.

solneeshka, BSN, RN · Nov 11, 2010

You said you liked your first OR job; were there as many scrub tech there? I seem to see this theme over and over again of scrub techs copping an attitude with the nurses, and having a real us-vs-them attitude. My friend is a resource nurse in the cath lab and they have meetings about it all the time, it's ridiculous. In the OR where I work, they stopped hiring scrub techs at some point so there are only a few left, so few that they really can't gang up and bully nurses (plus they are all nice people). There are different personalities at different facilities. Maybe you need to look for a place with an all-RN policy in the OR.