My Experience Scrubbing Hearts

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Like many nurses, I have missed holidays with family, had to cancel long-standing plans at the last minute, and sacrificed a lot personally for this career I've chosen.

  • I've been screamed at in front of the entire CT team, challenged to be better in no uncertain terms, and been subject to the highest level of intensity I could ever imagine in healthcare;
  • I've watched many patients (from a 5 year old child to a 30 year old young adult to an 80 year old grandmother...to name a few) pass away in front of my very eyes;
  • I've walked out of the O.R. covered in blood, sweat and tears more times than I can count;
  • i've been asked to replace a fellow as Second Assist more times than I can count;
  • I've had to ask to have our Circulator to replace our Scrub Tech because she was not prepared and slowing down the case;
  • I've seen things that modern medicine cannot explain - patients that should not have lived walk out of the hospital within days after surgery;
  • I've had to have my gloves and shield changed over 12 times all during one case;
  • I've seen life reinfused into gravely ill patients time-and-again.

Hearts is a unique specialty - perhaps the most unique in all of surgery. Being hand-picked for the high-risk team has brought me much pride, but it hasn't come without an immense amount of pressure. O.R. nursing, and CVOR nursing, is not for everybody. It is extremely difficult and requires a level of commitment to be on top of your game every day that 'bleeds' into your personal life.

But, all that said, it gives me a sense of purpose that I never found elsewhere in nursing. We are a team and truly, care for one another as equals. When everything is working, the 'symphony' that is so often analogized to a great surgical team comes alive and those subtle barriers that separate phases disappear and it just becomes ONE.

in the CVOR, you can't take things personally - getting yelled at is part of the job - it's not abusive, it's just the way our team tells one another "you can be better". The saying that when people no longer make the effort to correct your mistakes they have given up on you...is very true.

I've about to hit my 3 year mark on the team, and we have had 5 PAs, 3 other scrub RNs, and 3 CSTs that have been asked to leave the team. I am proud of being on this team and have been rewarded with many opportunities, including the chance to co-lecture with our attending on certain techniques to our surgical residents.

Always open for questions and inquiries about this amazing sub-specialty - [email protected]

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