Cons of Perioperative Nursing....?

Editorial Team / Admin · Feb 18, 2016

Here's my response from another thread as well as links to another 2 threads on similar topics:

Many people have posted threads asking about the pros and cons of working as an OR nurse. How about we start one thread with all of your pros and cons?
Here's mine:
Pros:
-1 patient at a time, and they're asleep without visitors for the vast majority of it
-teamwork (when it's good)
-call (extra $$!)
-great opportunity to learn anatomy
-variety: can spend 1 day a week in neuro, another in ortho, etc.
Cons:
-There's a lot to learn
-surgeons (some aren't exactly the nicest- they all have bad moments, like when that innocent bystander who took a bullet to the chest is tanking, and the surgeon just lets out a couple f-bombs at the situation, but some are just generally asses)
-call (amount varies from place to place and specialty to specialty- currently, I am tied to my pager and staying within 20 minutes of the hospital about 32-80 hours per week, depending on if it's my weekend- makes simple things like grocery shopping something that just can't be done on a whim- standing in line to check out with a bunch of cold/frozen stuff and hearing the pager go off, knowing there's no way to get the stuff home and still make it to the hospital on time is a bad idea)
And a couple of links to previous threads:
https://allnurses.com/operating-room-...ns-799682.html
https://allnurses.com/operating-room-...se-700092.html

SugarNSpiceRN · Feb 19, 2016

Thank you for sharing :)

megcowley · Mar 1, 2016

Cons:

-You will lose many bedside nursing skills I.e. iv starts, assessment skills, etc.

-you're always on a schedule and will be demanded to move faster and faster to maintain whatever time allotments surgeons, centers, and/or managers deem necessary

-same small group of people all day in the same small room, so if you get claustrophobic, not for you

prettymica, ASN, BSN, MSN, LPN, RN, APRN, NP · Mar 4, 2016

Loss of skills, Boredom, gossip, not so nice surgeons and scrubs, and push for 10 min turnovers.