Can they PLEASE stop calling her a nurse!!!

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Here in Denver there was a surgical tech that had HEP C and was stealing fentanyl syringes from the OR and injecting herself with it and swapping them with saline ones. Well it has been all over the local news and also on the national news and on several local stations they keep calling her a nurse :angryfire She was a surgical tech not that it makes it any better or worse but it is just a personal pet peeve that anyone that wears scrubs and works in a hospital is a nurse

Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
Ok, not to be picky or anything, but a surgical tech completes 9 months of training. They set up the surgical field and they assist the surgeon. Some of these people have been working in surgery for years and are highly specialized/skilled. Some techs actually close incisions with suture. I'm not defending the tech in colorado, but I think some surgical techs would be very offended to be compared to a housekeeper.

But legally they are not nurses.I keep reading that Debbie Rowe was Michael Jackson's dermatologist's nurse..No-she was his "assistant" Not a trained medical assistant,either. My vet's office has vet techs that call themselves nurses,-my doctor's office-ditto.Very few of the staff there are actually lpns or rns. What do people think "nurses" actually do? A co-worker was reading tele strips at the nurse's station once and was reported by a family member for "doing her nails" while their liuttle old grandmother wanted her hair washed .To make matters worse she came into the hospital with the nastiest matted hair we had ever seen..It did not happen overnight.

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What is a surgical tech?

He or she hands the instruments to the doctor during surgery. May also have duties in cleaning up the instruments after a case and certainly sets them up prior to the operation. Should never be anywhere near the anesthesia office or carts. A cart is taken into the OR so the anesthesiology personnel have what they need for a particular patient. It is manned by an anesthesiologist (doctor) or anesthetist (nurse with lots of extra study, called a CRNA certified registered nurse anesthetist).

An OR or surgical technician has nothing to do with that. There are, however, anesthesia techs. They presumably set up the anesthesia carts, clean them, maybe have other duties.

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The title of 'nurse' is something we work very hard for and I dont like it thrown around. Most people wouldn't DARE thrown around the title of Doctor/MD

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Ok, not to be picky or anything, but a surgical tech completes 9 months of training. They set up the surgical field and they assist the surgeon. Some of these people have been working in surgery for years and are highly specialized/skilled. Some techs actually close incisions with suture. I'm not defending the tech in colorado, but I think some surgical techs would be very offended to be compared to a housekeeper.

I hate the attitude that a housekeeper is a lowly, unimportant being. Our housekeepers work so hard to keep us stocked with TP, hand towels, seat covers, and soap in the bathroom. They wash our toilets and sinks. They mop up blood and guts, they handle sharps containers, they make sure patients' rooms are as sanitary as possible.

We are blessed that our housekeepers seem to regard their dirty, lowly work as very, very important. If they were ashamed of their work, if they had no pride or self-respect, they wouldn't care that the windows are filthy or the floors and carpets are dirty and smelly. We need to have enough self-respect that we do not need to bloster our egos by saying that someone else is "just a housekeeper" or other manual laborer. Try living without them and you will know how important they are.

Learn their names, get to know them. Bring them a little gift from time to time. Remember them at Christmas. Imagine how tired and sore they are, being on their feet so much. Imagine how many hours they must work to make ends meet.

They are knowledgeable, too, about infection control. They know what spray to use when, etc.

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I am by no ways putting down surgical techs but the idea of them closing incisions to me is very very wrong:down: There are several trade school programs here in the area and several of them dont require even a GED when you enter them. I know this for a fact b/c I have a friend that is a admission rep for one of these school and he told me this he also that the average education level for most entering the program was between 7-9 grade when it came to testing.

I think surgical techs are great but when it comes to 1st assisting that should be designated for RNFA

Surgical tech programs range from 19 weeks to 2 year associate degree programs and beyond. In order to legally suture an incision shut on an OR patient, the tech needs to go through a first assist program and become certified. The same goes for an OR nurse. Not just anyone is given the opportunity to suture up patients. There have been plenty of times when techs and scrub nurses have assisted in closing wounds using staplers and steri strips, but almost never using needle and suture thread without being a certified FA.

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Are surgical techs licensed? I can see where there is a need/place for them but I think when it comes to FA it should be a RNFA

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Surgical techs can be certified or non-certified. There is no licensure, but I am wondering what you feel the difference between a RNFA and a STFA would be if they have the same FA training. Surgical techs have specialized surgical training - that's what they go to school for. RNs have a broader range of training during school and only once they have graduated do they have the opportunity to focus on a specialty. If both the RN and the surgical tech had 2 years of training and came out of school with an Associate's Degree, the surgical tech would be able to get a job in the OR srubbing immediately with a shorter orientation time whereas the RN would need to have longer orientation or much more intense orientation in order to become a scrub nurse. By the time the RN had the scrub experience to take a FA course, the surgical tech would, in all reality, have more experience in the field than the RN at that point.

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If a surgical tech had a AS degree was certified and then went through FA training it would be different BUT from just looking it around most of the surgical techs I saw not AS programs but ranged from 9-13 moths was not certified and had no FA training then absolutely should not be FA.

Maybe ST should fight/lobby for all their programs to be AS degrees & techs to be certified.

Again I am not saying ST dont have a place in the OR or that they are not important. Do you happen to know how many of them are FA or certified I am just curious?

I wonder if any RNFA want to chime in I would be interested to know their perspective

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Also are STFA making the same as a RNFA? Because if they are doing the exact same job it would be a shame if their pay was different

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Specializes in Operating Room.
A surgical tech just sets up equipment, cleans the rooms etc... Like a CNA/Houskeeper for the OR. Cheaper than a nurse too...

Probably got Hep C from prior theft of syringes too. How poetic.

So much for that medical career eh?

Yeah, the Media is just out of control sometimes... must have saved that story for last, and made you wait the whole program right? Must not have had time before they cut to commercial to tell the whole story!

Every time they slander nurses that aren't even nurses the ANA should stand up for nurses and sue the stupid media! That might give them a real nursing story.

Why don't they report on our working conditions?

In my area, a surgical tech scrubs in for cases, hands instruments during surgery, etc. Many have associate's degrees and are certified.

Not saying they should represent themselves as nurses, but they are not CNA's or housekeepers either.

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Specializes in Operating Room.
Also are STFA making the same as a RNFA? Because if they are doing the exact same job it would be a shame if their pay was different

Depends what state you're in..some states recognize both, some recognize only RNFAs and some recognize neither. I have known a couple of RNFAs and they work with a specific group of surgeons-they make a decent amount of money. Can't speak to STFAs, because my state doesn't recognize them.

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Specializes in Operating Room.
If a surgical tech had a AS degree was certified and then went through FA training it would be different BUT from just looking it around most of the surgical techs I saw not AS programs but ranged from 9-13 moths was not certified and had no FA training then absolutely should not be FA.

Maybe ST should fight/lobby for all their programs to be AS degrees & techs to be certified.

Again I am not saying ST dont have a place in the OR or that they are not important. Do you happen to know how many of them are FA or certified I am just curious?

I wonder if any RNFA want to chime in I would be interested to know their perspective

In my area, they will not hire anyone as a surgical technologist who hasn't graduated from an accredited program. The vast majority of techs here have an associates and are certified. I myself was a surgical technologist for years before nursing school and I had to take Anatomy, Physiology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, and numerous Surgical Procedure classes. When I applied to nursing school, many of these classes were accepted as transfer credits. I feel my time as a surg tech really helped me as an OR nurse-especially since I can scrub. this makes me very marketable.

A place I worked gave me access to the Pyxis too as a tech because in that facility, it was the tech's job to pull local for upcoming cases. Never pulled any controlled substances though.

And like I said, many places will not hire anyone who isn't certified anyway.

Haven't known too many RNFAs..and haven't seen any in my hospital now, because it is a teaching facility. The surgical residents close patients.

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