I am a new grad who has been working on a surgical/tele floor for about 2 months. I hate it. I know I am new but floor nursing is not for me and I know this for a fact. I am already planning on finding a new job after 6 months.
I am deciding if I want to be an OR nurse or ER nurse. I have always had a passion for the OR. There is something about surgery and the OR that just makes me the happiest. I was planning on being a CRNA, but I do not even know if I can withstand bedside/ICU nursing to gain all of the experience needed to become a CRNA. So I decided I want to consider OR nursing. I love that you have one patient at a time, they are unconscious, and you can spend all of your time focusing on all of the details for that one surgery. I am a very detail oriented person, so I love that about OR nursing. Also the schedule is a lot better (even with on-call in my opinion.) So, The reason I am second guessing OR is because I am scared that I am going to lose/not learn assessment and critical thinking skills that you would gain by being a bedside nurse. This is the only drawback for me.
I know I said bedside nursing was not for me, but I think I can do ER. In the ER, you do not have to deal with all of the tedious little things that the floor has to deal with (admissions, discharges, I/Os, passing 1,000000 meds, trying to figure out which doctor put in which order, serving needy patients for long hours on end, and way more). Patients are in, you fix them up and send them off while still utilizing so many critical thinking skills. You have to be quick, and I am quick.
Can you tell me your experiences with either specialty, and offer any opinions if you have any! I should mention that I want to go back to school to become an NP. Would OR nursing prevent me from gaining the experience/skills required for that? If I go into OR, I could become a first assist, go to school, and specialize in surgery? Or maybe transfer floors later on in my career? idk. I am just leaning towards OR at this point.
I've done ER at a community hospital and at a level one as well. I'm in the OR now.
Unfortunately you will be having to do all of those boring tedious things in the ER. Admission assessments, discharges, and tons and tons of passing meds. Total care pts with no tech sometimes. Ekgs, ekgs, ekgs..There is less of a pattern but it is all there. I had many days where I held floor pts all day and did not move a single one. So I was a floor nurse for the day. I've held ICU, psych and peds pts so you really will learn the tedious aspects of all of that. I loved the traumas and the variety and my coworkers. I was headed quickly to burn out due feeling like I was trading good pt care for expediancy and realized I needed a change. So I literally jumped blindly into the OR and have enjoyed it so far. There are pros and cons to both and in an ideal world I would do both part time.
ER people adapt better to the OR than you would think. There are quite a few where I work and we are respected to the point our management likes hiring ER transfers. I work at a trauma center so the OR can be just as unpredictable as the ER some days. I may be assigned to work in urology but a stat trauma comes and my room goes on hold and I go there. Or a case is cancelled and I go to another specialty room. I enjoy the variety and change. The traumas in the OR are really cool to watch most of the time. Other days it is a long case and after I set up I literally could read a book. I also was trained to scrub which adds variety and it's fun to get up in the action most of the time.
There is less autonomy for a nurse in the OR and you will not use critical thinking in the way you were taught in school. It is a different way of thinking. It's more-What bed set up how, which instrument sets, supply packs, do I need xray, which meds, should i ask to get blood in the room and a million other small details that can be overwhelming to remember at first because it is different for every surgery. But I have learned a lot! I get to see anatomy. I know what is abnormal and normal, get to see fractures fixed, large kidney stones removed, tumors removed, plastic surgery, organ harvesting, neuro surgeries. I still look at labs and vitals but ultimately anesthesia is responsible for that. Circulating is a coordinating role. People who don't do it may call you a secretary or gofer. The reality is the room and operation will not run well without us. Anesthesia and the surgery team rely on you.
Overall I think it is a tradeoff of less autonomy for less stress transferring from the ER. I'm not bored but I do miss starting IVs and giving meds and the hands on pt care. I do really enjoy surgery and the one to one ratio in the OR. On another note the OR did show me that I am not interested in being a CRNA. Anesthesia is very mentally challenging but staying in the same little area all day is not for me.
I think the biggest take-away is there is not a one-sized-fits-all specialty. OR is not "the best", nor is ER. ICU isn't for everyone. Just as we shouldn't tell a person automatically to go "peds" or "med-surg" or "oncology" or any such thing. We all have our individual gifts, personalities, and goals that make a particular nursing specialty right for us (or right for us right now!).
I personally started in OR and found it was NOT a fit for me but others were obviously thriving in that environment. I was disappointed that I did not get to use certain skills and knowledge and did not get a lot of satisfaction out of setting up a room or having all the supplies. Yes, it did feel good when a case ran really well and I knew I played a big part in it. I learned a ton from actually seeing the anatomy and getting to watch surgeries (if I had time and a vantage point). But mostly, I felt isolated and (literally) COLD. And I also found I missed interacting with patients and following their patho. I REALLY wanted to know what happened to them. If they experienced a complication, I found myself wanting to go back to PACU and investigate (not that I really could).
So, I have moved on. I am grateful we have so much flexibility. I respect excellent nurses, regardless of specialty!
Specializes in Hospice, corrections, psychiatry, rehab, LTC.
On 7/31/2019 at 5:03 PM, Undercat said:
If you dislike interacting with patients, then you might like OR.
Funny that you should say that. When I did my surgery rotation in nursing school, the circulating nurse who I was paired with said that one thing that he liked about his job was that he didn't have to make small talk. He would say "hello" when the patient arrived in the OR, afterward they would be unconscious, then off to recovery.
I will have been an RN for 1 year in August. Started in PD ER. Hated it. Found Endoscopy and I am LOVING it. At our hospital, Endo is part of the OR (sort of) so we get to wear the light blue scrubs so that is really cool. I wanted to do OR for a short time but I love endoscopy so much and I have really found my calling to be a GI RN. Perhaps consider Endo or procedural nursing such as Cath Lab? I have heard some pretty cool stuff about that as well. I hope to hear a reply and update. Best of luck, Britt
I will have been an RN for 1 year in August. Started in PD ER. Hated it. Found Endoscopy and I am LOVING it. At our hospital, Endo is part of the OR (sort of) so we get to wear the light blue scrubs so that is really cool. I wanted to do OR for a short time but I love endoscopy so much and I have really found my calling to be a GI RN. Perhaps consider Endo or procedural nursing such as Cath Lab? I have heard some pretty cool stuff about that as well. I hope to hear a reply and update. Best of luck, Britt
I took a job in pre/post-op! I wanted something procedural but also still wanted patient contact and I think this was a happy medium. Also the schedule is amazing :) Thanks for the replies and advice!!
elanab27
15 Posts
Following this thread. Thanks!