Feeling completely useless in the OR! Please help!

Well I wouldn't go changing anything until after the baby is here. Maybe you could ask to have more responsibility? Or go PRN elsewhere. I will warn all areas have their pros and cons. Your skill set will vary depending on where you work. It's not often you maintain all of the same skills you obtained during school. Typically you don't use certain ones as often and in exchange learn new ones.

I agree w previous poster. You can use your maternity leave to decide, but I probably wouldn't change pregnant/with an infant. That's already a lot of stress. Add learning a new nursing job.

Use this his time period to sock some money away and then consider your options.

You our have to decide if the opportunity to gain skills is worth the loss of pay. Remember that your priorities may change after you have the baby.

However, no jobs use all your nursing skills.

If you are already pregnant or planning on a family soon your priorities will change.

You need to keep that in mind. I do not see that what you are doing is not useful or less than on the floor. It is a different work you do but it is to the benefit of the patient who needs surgery. OR seems to be one of the areas that are still very hierarchical and where it takes some while until you are established and respected equally. You write that you are not willing to give up some of the advantages of working in the OR - which is fine - but I do not see how you would be happy on the floor. I know many nurses who went to the OR right out of nursing school and who never regretted it. They feel that they are valued, their knowledge is helping the patient and surgeon to achieve a goal, and they participate in councils, education and so on.

Once you have family, you will be stressed out with less sleep, worries, and so on and probably appreciate the less intense setting more - it is also easier to find babysitter/childcare during regular work hours.

Okay, let's talk about those surgeons and their attitudes. Are they getting frustrated at a situation or making it personal against staff? There is a difference, and you shouldn't need to feel like you're walking on eggshells. With some of them, it comes down to you needing to tell them to cut the crap.

Now, about those nursing skills. Each specialty is going to have its own skill set. Yes, you learned skills in nursing school that you aren't using in the OR. But you're also learning skills that are unique to the OR- quick assessments (you may not think you're doing them, but you are- or at least should be- skin, anxiety, needs for special positioning equipment or padding, etc), cognitive function and education- do they really know what they're having done and why? Things like that.

Emergencies. Yes, that is primarily anesthesia- they're already managing the airway and medications. You're more of traffic control to get rid of all the unneeded lookyloos and doing the documentation. All parts are equally important, and require a team. The same is true of emergencies on the floor- the floor staff start BLS and then the code team arrives and runs them.

My final thoughts: nurses either love the OR and never leave or hate it and get out as fast as they can. Only you can decide which category you match. Additionally, it takes a lot of time to truly feel confident and competent- there's a reason OR orientation is one of the longest (if not the longest) specialty orientations.

Best wishes on whatever path you choose.

I think OR is a great specialty - I almost ended up in the OR ! My last clinical before graduating from nursing school was 4 weeks long in the dermatology OR of a major teaching hospital. I really enjoyed it! I was asked to apply but the ICU where I had a very long clinical just before the derm OR offered me a job so I grabbed that on. Years later I thought about OR again but by that time I felt I was too old to get into such a specialized area. OR nurses rock!