Mourkoth

Mourkoth specializes in ICU and Perioperative.

Latest Activity

1. Patient safety in a down economy?

   Mourkoth replied to Mourkoth's topic in Operating Room

   Hold on there Ms. Critical, Lets cut the "I'm better than you finger pointing stuff". The chart was there in the room and I was the circulator. I just turned a few pages back and saw the old peri-op record. I'm not spreading gossip or anything. I ...

2. Patient safety in a down economy?

   Mourkoth posted a topic in Operating Room

   Hey, I've got a question. Do any of you have any safety concerns or have witnessed a compromise in safety since the economy has had a downturn? The reason that I'm asking is that I'm new to the OR enviroment and my experience is limited as I just com...

3. Anyone Have 10 hour shifts in their PACU?

   Mourkoth replied to All4Seasons's topic in PACU

   Our hospital is a 24/7 level one trauma center. We have a variety of shifts in our PACU. 8, 10, 12hr and some call shifts. The manager tries to be creative and flexable to accomidate for the OR schedule. We usually have a mid-day rush as the first ca...

4. Lose Nursing Skills??

   Mourkoth replied to trepinCT's topic in Operating Room

   I graduated nursing school in 1985. I spent most of my career in the ICU setting, with 8yrs in the PACU. I was burned out and wanting a radical career change. I was looking to exit the medical field all together. My wife suggested the O.R. I went thr...

5. Limit to the Number of People in the OR??

   Mourkoth replied to EvaJ's topic in Operating Room

   Hi there, We are a huge teaching hospital. Our ORs are really big and we don't limit number of student. We have 22 OR rooms and are building 4 more. I feel that regardless of the teaching aspect, the patient always comes first. As the Circulator, it ...

6. Turnover time between cases

   Mourkoth replied to lc4043's topic in Operating Room

   Our goal is 30 minutes However it rarely happens. Our schedulers seem to be oblivious to the proper flow. For example they will schedule a femur fx with an OSI traction table then to follow they want a vascular case with the radioluscent table which ...

7. What would you do ?

   Mourkoth replied to OR male nurse's topic in Operating Room

   Hey, I wouldn't leave the room for anyone, especially if it was a non-emergent case. I'm very new to the OR enviroment, but I've seen night shift call where real emergency cases come in and the nurse starts another. The nurse will get another room go...

8. Cloth surgical hats

   Mourkoth posted a topic in Operating Room

   Hey, I have an informal poll, or a question for everyone. We reciently had an incident in sterile processing where there was some hair found in one of our drills (after processing). We were opening for a crainotomy and there was a hairball on the he...

9. count sheets

   Mourkoth replied to joeshaf's topic in Operating Room

   Well, I'm saying it!! I won't mention any names, but I work at one of the two level one trauma centers in the state of Oregon. We never count anything from the tray on any extremity case. We, as responsible nurses, count (to ourselves) the smaller t...

10. Regarding surgical consents

    Mourkoth replied to sharann's topic in Operating Room

    If it is an Emergency case and the patient is from the ER, then a consent in not absolutely necessary. It is preferable but not necessary. If it is an in-patient and the case is not an emergency and the physician had ample time to get a consent, then...

11. count sheets

    Mourkoth replied to joeshaf's topic in Operating Room

    This debate is really not about patient safety. It is really instrument accountability, and cost containment. In a big OR, instruments sometimes get lost. Someone has to be accountable (or to blame). If it were simply a patient safety issue then we ...

12. y'all ain't going to believe this one!!

    Mourkoth replied to ebear's topic in Operating Room

    Maybe the patient marked the site as a joke. I had a patient who was getting a Left total hip done. He marked on the Right leg, "No not this leg, this is not the one. How about you walk around the table and if you are still standing there reading, ma...

13. count sheets

    Mourkoth replied to joeshaf's topic in Operating Room

    Whats a count sheet? I'm new to the OR and we count Laps, Rays needles, TW's loops, hypos, kb's bovie tips, scratch pad, ect. We don't however count instruments.

14. scrub people who throw off all their raytecs?

    Mourkoth replied to mikethern's topic in Operating Room

    I think that sometimes it is ok to throw off your raytecs. If I don't plan to use that many rays in a case. I will count them with the circulator and then roll nine of them up real tight with one long unfolded ray. If they are not used in the case (...

15. Hiring a BSN vs. ADN nurse

    Mourkoth replied to Julie4804's topic in General Nursing

    I worked for 6 years as a director of nursing. With experienced nurses there was no difference. If they were both new grads, I'd go with the ADN every time. JDTaylor