Help! Pros and Cons of OR nursing!

[officerswifern]

Hello all,

I have been an ICU nurse for a year and am considering a change to the OR. The ICU was not "all I hoped and dreamed it would be" (LOL... is anything?) and would like some feedback from you OR nurses out there. I would love positive and negatives, Pro's and Con's about it. Please be honest and let me know what you like and dislike about your job! I really want to find an area that I enjoy working in.

Thanks in advance for your time and thoughts!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

Pros:

-one patient at a time

-pretty much guaranteed a lunch and a break, unless the brown stuff is really hitting the fan

-develop good teamwork

-call (extra $)

-a variety (I can do neuro, general, vascular, ortho, uro, all in one 8 hour shift)

-closed unit, so no floating to other floors

Cons:

-some people in the OR have, shall we say, unique personalities

-when things go bad, they go really bad really quick

-call (means no making plans that night)

-nobody seems to leave the OR, so seniority isn't something that you can move up in

If you do a search, you will find other threads like this, with many responses already.

[officerswifern]

Thanks! Will do some more searching for those posts. :) I appreciate it!