I need some feedback from relatively new OR nurses on their orientation and hours. I feel like a jerk, I am about to complain about a schedule that new grads dream about. It's five days per week, 7-1530. The thing is, that translate to a 5:20 wake up and in the door at 1645 for me. I can stay functional until about 1930, and then I'm a mess. I go to bed before my kids and I am a cranky mommy.
I love this job. I love learning all of the specialities, I work with really smart people and I have a supportive orientation with good preceptors. But I drive to work with acid roiling in my stomach and hope that the day goes fast. I am unbelievably abysmally dumb by Friday and make mistakes that I would never normally make and then I wonder what the hell I am doing in this job.
Is it me or is the OR intense? I am concentrating hard all day and I have about an hour of useful consciousness at home before I need to go hide.
I am getting good feedback from my preceptors and superiors, but I feel like I am going to break soon. The main thing in the OR that is really tough is keeping your mouth shut. I used to have a pretty social job and while I have never been a jabberer, I was used to friendly people. Now I feel like I have to keep quiet because everyone is taking my measure. It's exhausting.
Try this on for size... I whole heartedly feel you pain. I was an ER Nurse for 9 years and was the go to person there. Now I feel like I am in the twilight zone in the OR. It is completely different, however I love it. I too feel like an ulcer about to erupt. I started the 12 week OR class in Jan of this year, which is the military version of the AORN Class, 1 month didactic and 2 months circulating. Then I moved to my new base and job. Oriented for 2 weeks, and had to go to a leadership lab for 5 weeks (totally unrelated to anything medical, something I have to do to get promoted to Major). Now here I am i re-started my orientation in July after the leadership lab and 1 August is the end of my orientation; 6 weeks total and to top it off I will be the Nurse Manager for Ortho. Not only am I a new OR Nurse but am now the supposed resource for Ortho? I wish I had the orientation you guys speak of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now here I am i re-started my orientation in July after the leadership lab and 1 August is the end of my orientation; 6 weeks total and to top it off I will be the Nurse Manager for Ortho. Not only am I a new OR Nurse but am now the supposed resource for Ortho? I wish I had the orientation you guys speak of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do what I do. Each day before work, I tell myself that I am just going to do my best. That's all the matters. As long as you do your best, you have nothing to be ashamed of. You should only be ashamed of not doing a good job if you are NOT doing your best. Just do your best and hope for the best.
And look on the bright side. The advantage of being the ortho manager is that you "only" have to learn ortho. Learning one specialty is a lot easier than learning EVERY specialty. Ortho doesn't even count instruments. Ortho is difficult but it actually pretty fun once you are good at it.
Go to the synthes website and download all the instruction manuals of their ortho trays. It's a good resource.....
Try this on for size... I whole heartedly feel you pain. I was an ER Nurse for 9 years and was the go to person there. Now I feel like I am in the twilight zone in the OR. It is completely different, however I love it. I too feel like an ulcer about to erupt. I started the 12 week OR class in Jan of this year, which is the military version of the AORN Class, 1 month didactic and 2 months circulating. Then I moved to my new base and job. Oriented for 2 weeks, and had to go to a leadership lab for 5 weeks (totally unrelated to anything medical, something I have to do to get promoted to Major). Now here I am i re-started my orientation in July after the leadership lab and 1 August is the end of my orientation; 6 weeks total and to top it off I will be the Nurse Manager for Ortho. Not only am I a new OR Nurse but am now the supposed resource for Ortho? I wish I had the orientation you guys speak of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you have any questions or anything,PM me. Ortho is my specialty. Obviously,I don't know everything but I can at least give you some support. Good luck.:nuke:
Thanks for the support guys, I appreciate it. I may look to you for ortho support as I have no one here to train me. The other ortho manager left before I had a chance to train with them. I am on my own! And I do have to know every OTHER specialty too as I will be on call a lot. I just happen to manage ortho.
jnl2000
16 Posts
Try this on for size... I whole heartedly feel you pain. I was an ER Nurse for 9 years and was the go to person there. Now I feel like I am in the twilight zone in the OR. It is completely different, however I love it. I too feel like an ulcer about to erupt. I started the 12 week OR class in Jan of this year, which is the military version of the AORN Class, 1 month didactic and 2 months circulating. Then I moved to my new base and job. Oriented for 2 weeks, and had to go to a leadership lab for 5 weeks (totally unrelated to anything medical, something I have to do to get promoted to Major). Now here I am i re-started my orientation in July after the leadership lab and 1 August is the end of my orientation; 6 weeks total and to top it off I will be the Nurse Manager for Ortho. Not only am I a new OR Nurse but am now the supposed resource for Ortho? I wish I had the orientation you guys speak of!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!