Do You Circulate All Specialties At Your Facility?

[IsseyM]

Hi everyone,

I was curious and wanted to know if your OR requires you to circulate all specialties. At my hospital we have General, Vascular, Hearts, Ortho, Neuro and Cysto. Many nurses and scrub techs only stay in 1 or 2 specialties. So far i've been in General, Vascular, Ortho and Cysto but i mostly get General which is fine with me. I'm lost with Neuro and some Vascular cases freak me out. Hearts is off limits to everyone, they have their own heart nurses and techs but when they're free they circulate any specialty. There has been talk for months that they want to cross train everyone to all specialties but i haven't seen that yet. Seems like they're only doing it with people who have gone through the perioperative classes...like me. Thanks!

IsseyM

[CuttingEdgeRN]

I work in a 22 room OR suite. I circulate ent, plastics, dental, eyes, general, bariatrics, ortho, urology, neuro, and some CV (can lunch and break in the cabg rooms but wouldn't feel comfortable starting one).

I scrub in ent, dental, plastics, basic general

[Crux1024]

At my facility, in theory, RN's are supposed to circualte all specialties, since in the training program they are given 2-3 weeks in each specialty to learn. Reality is, once they are off the program and start on their own, they find their niche and stay there. Same with Scrub Techs...

[heather2084, BSN]

My facility is a 6 room OR with a cysto room and minor procedure room. all endo cases are done in their own endo rooms and endo is more a part of day surgery rather than surgery, and Endo has their own circulators.

I have been in the OR 6 months and can circulate ENT/Eyes, Plastics, General, Gyn, OB, Ortho, Neuro, and Cysto. I go wherever they send me. Several circulators have their specialties but still circulate other cases if need be. Heart/Vascular team do all those cases, but are also doing the rest of the specialties as well when there's nothing for them. I just got asked to join the heart team and will be training there as well, so I feel in another 6 months I'll have quite the well rounded experience.

We have plenty of nurses who may not feel absolutely comfortable in certain services, but are still able to perform if need be.....ESPECIALLY when on call!

[ewattsjt]

At my facility, in theory, RN's are supposed to circualte all specialties, since in the training program they are given 2-3 weeks in each specialty to learn. Reality is, once they are off the program and start on their own, they find their niche and stay there. Same with Scrub Techs...

Same here!!!

[shodobe]

At the 3 places I work at, fulltime, parttime and once in awhile, I circulate everything except the Heart room. I was trained like that 30 years ago and it hasn't really changed. The one PT place, 1-3 days a week and only in the AM, I give breaks and lunches to the scrubs and circs so I have to be able to do everything. No one should get pidgeon-holed if they can help it.

[TravORNurse]

During my time as staff with a hospital, I worked the evening shift. Because the evening people couldn't specialize, we did everything. I think it made me a stronger nurse because now I circulate and scrub on almost everything that most OR's do. The only think I can't do now is hearts and liver/lung transplants, but most OR's that do those types of procedures have teams that come in for that kind of stuff around the clock. In my experience if you put yourself in those rooms with those people (if everyone is comfortable with you observing during the cases) they are receptive to your questions and the added bonus is that the specialty teams become familiar with your face in their rooms so they are much more comfortable with you lending a hand when you are able to. You also will be given exposure to things you wouldn't normally see. I think everyone on those teams appreciates a person who is willing to take it upon themselves to become familiar with what they do.

Hope that helps. :-)