Learning the Surgical Instruments

Wow, thanks for sharing!!! That is a great visual, better than any book I have seen.....

Hi, new to allnurses.com but found this an interesting thread so I joined. I can say as a surgical tech student, learning instruments is crucial and the core text books are quite poor! In addition to the Surgical Technology for the Surgical Technologist text and Alexander's Care of the Surgical Patient, I purchased the spiral-bound reference guide. The trouble with all of these is that the photos are just not good enough to help someone learn at home. One of the best ways to learn if (like me) you only have two clinical days and they are spent on the Mayo, is to beg your way into the Central Sterilization and Processing department at any hospital and let them know you are a student and need to observe in the area and/or put together trays with them. They are usually very kind and allow for this when I.D. is shown. There is nothing like hands on experience with the instruments but being asked to pass one and not know the name...can be embarrasing. The next best source was listed here in this thread and I found this download for $12 to be more helpful than any book I've purchased!!! I highly recommend buying the .pdf file at this site! Hmmm...CEs...that is a good idea too. I bet this .pdf file could be made even better and more useful by having better photos of the details of the intruments! (although I think this one is very good) As surgical techs, we are all about surgery and I can just imagine a nursing student who has so much more on their acedemic plate...best of luck to all!! www.surgical-instrument-pictures.com this download was worth all of the $12 for me! :redpinkhe

for those who are in medical line there is a very unique and interesting site. at medical tools instruments are top quality and competitive too. whenever i’ve to buy a product i visit http://www.medical-tools.com for comprehensive surgical and dental instruments, it’s a pretty good place to shop i highly recommend it for anyone with even a passing interest in surgery.

Cool, thanks! It's pretty good. Not the detail of the serrations that I look for but very helpful. I also used the Konig catelog from Medline. They have really good detail!

I"ll pass your suggested link along to my fellow students who are going crazy trying to learn 9 different instrument sets this quarter.

Ouch,

Our hospital just got fined $75,000 for self reporting that an Ortho instrument was found to have some bone fragments down in one of the small lumens that didn't get completely cleaned out prior to going through the autoclave. Does anyone else have SPD problems? Seem's like the instrumentation is becoming more and more complex. We have scores of loaner trays coming in from outside reps everyday. How do other facilities deal with it?

I've started taking digital photos of the trays used in my specialty clinic, blowing them up to A4 size, laminating them and have labelled each instrument. I have them in a folder and lend them to nurses who haven't worked in the OR before.

Another way of learning the surgical instruments is to borrow some surgical catalogues of instruments from the folks that are ordering the surgical instruments for your department.

All of the companies that sell & manufacture surgical instruments have large catalogues that list & have pictures of the instruments in them..

Just a thought & hope it helps.