can I get some advice?

suzanne4, RN · Oct 25, 2005

Harvesting of most of the organs is done in the Operating Room of a hospital. About the only thing that can be done at the bedside is the harvesting of eyes. Check out the Operating Room Forum for more imformation with that field.

Not sure of the type of company that you will be working for, but once you get some surgical training or even critical care training, then there are actual donor network type agencies that do the procurement directly at hospitals and obtain the consent form the families, etc.

Good luck with your schooling............:)

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Oct 25, 2005

What you are asking about is a surgical or OR (operating room) nurse. RNs in the OR often start out working as circulating nurses. They are like the nurse in charge of an OR suite while a surgery is going on. They see to it that the patient for the case assigned for that room is identified and brought to the room and prepared for the anesthesiologist and the surgeon to do their jobs. They make sure the patient is positioned on the surgical table and direct the setting up of the OR for the particular surgery that is going to occur. Absolute sterility is one of their major responsibilities as well as the safety and proper positioning of the patient at all times in the OR. They also have the final responsbility for the needle and sponge counts before and after a procedure, so that a needle, instrument or piece of gauze (called a sponge) is not accidentally left in the patient. They are able to "circulate" between the OR suite and other areas of the surgical department because they are not one of the nurses who are actually part of the sterile, surgical field. So, they are kind of like go-fers when supplies that might be needed while a surgery is occurring can be obtained without someone having to step out of a sterile, surgical field. They sometimes are included in the sterile, surgical field, but that is more often left to the scrub nurses who are usually LPNs or OR Techs. It is a very important function within the surgical area. There is also some charting for which they are responsible. Their supervision over a patient's trip to the OR ends when the patient is transferred to the Post Anesthesia Recovery Room. That's kind of it in a nutshell, however, they have a very extensive responsibility and it is a specialty within hospital nursing. You have to go to nursing school and get your RN first to do this job. You learn about sterile fields in nursing school.

tejram · Oct 25, 2005

i am not aware of this type of job

Cute_CNA, CNA · Oct 25, 2005

I recently (last week) got a job at a regeneration clinic. Our firm handles the removal of eyes, kidney,bone and skin tissue ect. Although I'm in training at the moment, I will be assisting in the removal of donor organs from dead and willing clients in about a month.

:barf02: :barf01: See, this kind of stuff is why I'm not interested in actually becoming a nurse. Thank goodness there are people out there who are willing to do such necessary things! But please, not me.

Some links:

http://www.iseek.org/sv/22030.jsp?id=380711

http://www.allhealthnet.com/Nursing/Medical+Surgical+Nursing/