Shocked at Surgery

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm a freshman nursing student in an ADN program and yesterday I had the opportunity to observe in OR for the whole day. It was very cool, but I came home with my eyes wide open, I tell ya. It is really 'just a job' - not in a bad sense, but more like, "yes, I'm going to work now and there I may have to change some people's lives forever, but if I think about it, I probably will not do it, so I'm going to work now."

I'm left with a few items that need clarification, I'm hoping some of the more experienced nurses out there can help out. I want to emphasize, I am NOT making judgments, but in my naive state of never having observed surgery before, I just need to know these things:

#1: Are surgeons never gentle? I observed 5 different surgeries, everything from a T/A on a 5yo to a urethrotomy on a 60yo, with 4 different surgeons; none of the surgeons were what I would call gentle. Pulling, tearing, slashing, forcing through resistance - that's what I observed.

#2: Is it common for a surgeon to staple a drape onto a patient? I mean, stapling.the.cloth.into.a.patient. (On an 18yo's butt, to be exact)

#3: how bad does something have to be before the pt is told? In one surgery, the surgeon cut into a vein by mistake; will the doc tell the pt this? Will there be note made of things like this? In the urethrotomy, the doc forced the instruments hard enough that when he finally put the camera in, he found he had created a "false passage" - I do not know if this will be a LT problem, he didn't seem to be too upset, but will the pt know this? I just know that I would want to know that kind of thing.

Ok, again, I am NOT making judgments, maybe this is a common reaction to observing surgery for the first time, but it definitely makes me re-think any and all surgery I (or my loved ones) may ever opt for in the future!

Thanks everyone ---

Karen

I almost passed out during my surgery rotations. The smells of the skin being cauterized was the final straw. This surgeon used the cautering tool to open the incision. But the worst was the intubation. I have a thing about teeth and when they tubed him they broke some teeth --- eeerk

Specializes in Peds, GI, Home Health, Risk Mgmt.

I worked several years as a GI Lab RN at a large hospital and assisted with GI scoping on patients in the OR. I never observed any rude comments about those patients which certainly could have occurred given the patient situations.

I remember 2 such patients. One was a guy in his 30's having hemorrhoid surgery. When I got to his OR suite, he was unconscious, completely naked and positioned bent over on a sawhorse-shaped OR table with his bumm fully exposed (which looked like it had a sea anemone on it--the worst case of hemorrhoids I've ever seen).

The other patient was a guy in his 50's who must have weighed 400+ lbs. He needed both upper and lower scoping (EGD & colonoscopy) and the only way to do it safely was with an anesthesiologist and a full OR staff to help position him. I remember just feeling really bad for him that he was imprisoned in so much adipose tissue. The EGD went well, but then repositioning him for the lower procedure was very challenging as it was very difficult to move him (we had to keep his hospital bed next to the OR table to have a sufficiently large surface for him) and then the GI doc had difficulty locating his orifice. Her only comment was that since this was likely to be the only colonoscopy this patient would ever have, we needed to do a really thorough exam on him.

HollyVK

Specializes in nursery, L and D.

I have been a RN for 8 years. I see countless C-sec every year, and most of those pt are awake, so I don't hear many rude comments. I remember my 2 days of surgery rotation vaguely, so really can't comment on that.

But I didn't know that they.....staple.....things.....to butts!!!! Talk about an eye opener! Makes since when you think about it though.

I could agree with this, if my purpose was to inflict harm on a pt. I don't see it as "cutting them up," i see it as improving quality of life.

Huh? Of course you're trying to improve their lives. But you're still cutting them up to do it.

Specializes in Oncology, Research.

I have had surgery a few times where the anesthesia is just not cooperating with me. And, unfortunately, I have woken up every time to the RNs making some kind of nasty comment about my weight, tattoos, etc. I tell them in post-op exactly what I heard and how utterly unprofessional their comments were. Everyone says stress makes us say things that we don't mean. Well, I have been stressed many times at work, under much more dire conditions, and never have I felt the need to belittle a patient. Maybe some of the OR nurses on here might read this and encourage their colleagues to clean up their acts.

#2: is it common for a surgeon to staple a drape onto a patient? i mean, stapling.the.cloth.into.a.patient.

i see it all the time. i do not know where the process of squaring off the area (with towels before draping) started, but they are many times staples, and the drapes, too. especially if it is high risk that the drapes may drop.

i realize this may be common, but is it absolutely necessary?

there's lots of crazy stuff that gets done in the name of healing. in another life i watched a russian medic sew an ettube to a pts lip. sure makes you appreciate velcro.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Geri, Ortho, Telemetry, Psych.
I have had surgery a few times where the anesthesia is just not cooperating with me. And, unfortunately, I have woken up every time to the RNs making some kind of nasty comment about my weight, tattoos, etc. I tell them in post-op exactly what I heard and how utterly unprofessional their comments were. Everyone says stress makes us say things that we don't mean. Well, I have been stressed many times at work, under much more dire conditions, and never have I felt the need to belittle a patient. Maybe some of the OR nurses on here might read this and encourage their colleagues to clean up their acts.

:yelclap: :yeah: :yelclap: :yeah: :yelclap:

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