help! Are surgical techs and RNs the same??

Specialties Operating Room

Published

I am an operating room nurse at a rather large hospital. This facility has made it so that the Surgical techs and the RNs are pretty much equal. Therefore i am often talked to with disrespect and sarcasm, as well as constant undermining. I am feeling like i wasted my time going thru four years of college to have my RN be disregarded. I was a surgical tech for 15years and i never behaved that way. My alligence was always to my nurse. And when things went wrong i knew we had each others back.

I don't want to boss people around but i do think that a lot of the decisions in my room should be left up to me since i have a license on the line. however i am very open to ideas from my scrub person. I just don't like being told what "I need to do!" I feel i have earned the right to make decisions, but if i am seen as equal to my surgical tech then why did i bother being a nurse............. I am trying to be a team player but it just seems kind of weird to me that the roles have been sort of reversed. :crying2:

Specializes in Telemetry, OR, ICU.
I took/take you as a friend. I was pointing out that you had weakened (undermined) or disagreed with my comments, which was ironic when you said you agreed with me 100%. It just triggered my sense of humour, nothing else.

Healthy debate furthers a topic, either between friends or foes. As a matter if fact, healthy debate can only happen between friends, as foes tend to rapidly degrade any debate into something distinctly unhealthy.

Ferret :devil:

[edit; The edit note in my last post was designed to SPECIFICALLY point out that the challenge/debate was not aimed at you, Corvette Guy (CG). F :devil:]

:cool:

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I haven't visited/lurked at these boards in quite a long time now. And lately, I've been having doubts/second thoughts about whether or not I made the correct decision last year in withdrawing from a BSN program and enrolling in Electrical Engineering instead.

I'm finding it to be incredibly true that, over time, the mind has an amazing ability to block some pretty painful situations...and then make you feel nostalgic about those situations after a long period has passed, for some reason. After seven years as a CST, I was *so* sure that nursing was what I wanted to do. I loved working with patients, and helping out nurses where I could (in the OR and on the L&D unit I scrubbed on), etc. I remembered nurses that had taken care of me in my one hospital stay as a young child that were just angels to me...I wanted to be like them; they were so noble in my eyes! Who else would tolerate my SEVENTH call button push in an hour at 3am because I was afraid of the dark, take a kick to the leg (or in a worse area) when it was time for a shot in my heinie, and STILL be able to make me feel safe and comfortable??

In working, there were nurses who were true inspirations to me...even though the job is hard (and yes, I know nursing is a hard profession; one that entails a lot of responsibility, accountability and knowledge), they loved what they did and loved to teach me when I asked questions.

But more often than not I found a lot of bitterness and anger. Almost never to the patients, but *especially* toward other colleagues. And before I get flamed, I'm not saying the fight was flowing just from RN to tech or RN to RN...I *truly* believe that on a medical unit everyone is an Equal Opportunity Offender. Tech to RN, Dr to RN, Dr to Dr, hell, even housekeeper to housekeeper! I have never been able to figure out why there is so much hostility in a hospital. Is it turf? Respect or lack thereof? The bad cafeteria or vending machine food at 2am?? (I no longer eat ramen out of a styrofoam cup or a soggy, previously-frozen cheeseburger...I think this lends much to my current happiness and content life.)

I have never seen another profession (other than boxing....*maybe*....) where supposed adult professionals just take the gloves off, throw down, and mentally kick the living crap out of each other - no holds barred. The catfights were amazing to watch (and read on these boards). This behavior could seriously be turned into successful Pay-Per-View. And the funny thing is, everyplace I worked, I kept telling myself, "it's just this unit, it's got to be better somewhere else..." Or "it's just this one particular board, or section of a forum." But sadly, it never was or is.

So...I guess when those brain chemicals kick in and I start second-guessing, getting all nostalgic for the laughs on night shift or the rush of an emergent C-section, I can safely count on the fact that all I have to do is read this forum and remember my time working as a tech...How bitter I became over time, how angry and pent up. I can return to my senses.

My sane, content senses that have me happily poring over a circuit board design or computer program for hours at a time. Not better or worse than medical (No peeing contests between degrees here), just...different.

/salute to all of you that have been in the medical field for so long - RN, Tech, Doc - I don't know how you did it, or what your driving force is, but wow. Just...wow.

~Marin

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We are having the same problem with a tech at our facility as well. He is a good tech. He does his job well and I respect him for it, but he steps outside of his scope of practice. It drives all the RNs crazy and puts us in an extremely ackward situation. He is overly demanding. He will send us on wild goose chases to get stuff during surgery that he thinks we will need. (Often times we think it the the surgeons request-then go to find out that it was something he thought they might like to try so then we are out of the room when they ask for something they really want and we get reprimanded for them having to wait for us. He sets up the room and even if a surgeon has something listed on his/her preference card and the RN knows that they often use it he will tell us....they dont need that. He does everything from suctioning a patient (induction) and even once marked where the nurse anesthetist shoud put in his epidural! He tells the surgeons what they "should" do instead of what they currently do. If anyone else in our department was as obnoxious as he was we would get screamed at by the surgeons, but not him. He asks as if he is a surgeon. He orders new equipment without getting the approval of management and doesn't get in trouble. And he is so obnoxious it is unsettling being near him. He has been talked to for doing things he shouldn't and yet it continues. He was in the military and said that he did a lot of things that he is not allowed to do here. He finds us being overly cautious. And our complaints get no where because the surgeons dont say anything to him. Ever! And if the nurses reprimand him-the surgeons back him up! And it's not because he is a guy. We have other guys in our department that would never get away with what he does. He is a great surgical tech, but he doesn't have the education to act as a doctor or a registered nurse!

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I knew a tech just like that. Overly confident of limited abilities. Thought he knew best. Constantly overstepped the bounds of his practice and training. He managed to gain the confidence of surgeons through good scrub skills but did it at the expense of RN's. Would send RN's on wild goose chases while whispering in the surgeons ears about incompetent nurses. Unfortunately, that tech was me! It was not until nursing school that I realized what an idiot I really was. I was not putting the patient first. I was just self promoting. I was not a team player. I knew FAR LESS than I thought I knew. When I see it in techs today, I just have to laugh. Believe me, it is just insecurity and jealousy that is driving this behavior and knowing that will show you how to counter act it.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
Believe me, it is just insecurity and jealousy that is driving this behavior and knowing that will show you how to counter act it.

I can't believe it's always that, when i see how some of the nurses at work treat the techs like total crap.

I believe there is room for improvement all around.

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Some techs have earned that treatment.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

So have some nurses.

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I agree!

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Specializes in Telemetry, OR, ICU.
I knew a tech just like that. Overly confident of limited abilities. Thought he knew best. Constantly overstepped the bounds of his practice and training. He managed to gain the confidence of surgeons through good scrub skills but did it at the expense of RN's. Would send RN's on wild goose chases while whispering in the surgeons ears about incompetent nurses. Unfortunately, that tech was me! It was not until nursing school that I realized what an idiot I really was. I was not putting the patient first. I was just self promoting. I was not a team player. I knew FAR LESS than I thought I knew. When I see it in techs today, I just have to laugh. Believe me, it is just insecurity and jealousy that is driving this behavior and knowing that will show you how to counter act it.

SFCardiacRN,

Excellent post! :yelclap:

Not all Scrub Techs are demanding, and most are great to work with, too. Yet, I'd bet most demanding Scrub Techs are in fact insecure & jealous as you mentioned.

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I do believe this is a big reason of why he does act this way, but it doesn't make my job any easier. The sad thing is- he is an excellent scrub tech. He has proved him self on that. But the real problem lies in him practicing above and beyond his license. In our OR (as well as most) we are a close group and consider each other friends. However, we cringe when we see that he is on call with one of us or if we are assigned to a case with him. I have tried to talk to him outside of the OR and it does no good. He becomes defensive and to be honest he is more intimidating than some of our surgeons. He will argue til the death and many of us are sick of arguing. But I want to stress that I by no means have anything against scrub techs. The ones I work with are excellent. And dont get me wrong-there are abnoxious RNs as well. It's just if he does something against policy in my room I am just as much at fault as he is.

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i knew a tech just like that. overly confident of limited abilities. thought he knew best. constantly overstepped the bounds of his practice and training. he managed to gain the confidence of surgeons through good scrub skills but did it at the expense of rn's. would send rn's on wild goose chases while whispering in the surgeons ears about incompetent nurses. unfortunately, that tech was me! it was not until nursing school that i realized what an idiot i really was. i was not putting the patient first. i was just self promoting. i was not a team player. i knew far less than i thought i knew. when i see it in techs today, i just have to laugh. believe me, it is just insecurity and jealousy that is driving this behavior and knowing that will show you how to counter act it.

what a courageous post! i applaud you for knowing yourself so well. i only hope i am able to be quite so transparent to myself, or be open to those who would point it out in me. kudos, my friend.

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Give him a copy of his job discription. And high light his duties. some one gave me similiar advice and it worked. b-

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