I am a new nurse who has recently just graduated college, and have landed my first nursing job in the Operating Room. I had completed my senior practicum in the OR at another hospital, so I already have a fair amount of knowledge. The hospital I work at is a very large, level 1 trauma center with 28 OR's and has a year long residency program for new OR nurses. However big the OR is, it consists of a very tight knit group of employees, which has proven to be somewhat problematic. I have a couple of questions that I would like to get answered from other nurses or scrubs based on your own experiences.
Having been employed over two months ago, I have only seen the inside of an OR maybe 5 times. All of these times I have been the assistant circulator, however one concern I have is that every time I have been in a room, it was on a different service. I had started out in Neuro, then a week later went to GU, then General, ENT, and Ortho. I have had a lot of difficulty adjusting to this very infrequent exposure to the OR, and even more being shuffled from service to service. It is impossible to learn how a particular service operates in a day, and as soon as you start to feel somewhat comfortable you are no longer with them again, and as we know every service does things differently. I am just getting extremely frustrated. I feel as if we should be placed in a service for at least a couple of days in a row in order to start to feel somewhat comfortable.
Another problem that I have been having is jokes about homosexuality. I am infact a gay male, however you would never know it unless I was to tell you. On each service I have encountered some kind of homophobic remark. One time I was tying up a residents gown, when the scrub tech says "dont goose him, we are not tolerant to that sort of thing." To which the resident replies "No Fags in this OR!" I do not know why they would even think that was acceptable, one to say something like that to a new employee who they know nothing about, and secondly to say it in general. If i was straight I would take offence to that.
One of the distrubing things happened right after I was hired and was being shown to the locker rooms. One of the female employees made a comment about the male nurse that was going to show me the locker room and said "Make sure you watch your a** while you are around him." I couldnt believe it! I am just not sure what to do as I definitely do not want people here knowing about me.
One problem I have been having is how close everyone is to one another. My boss had approached me because another employee told her I had been wearing my Pyjamas to work, and that I had also been coming to work already wearing scrubs. Both of which are totally absurd accusations. I had one day a couple of weeks earlier worn gym shorts and a sweatshirt to work as my dryer had broke but thats it, and when I told my boss that she flew off the handle at me, and gave me a written warning. I just dont understand how it is appropriate for Residents to cycle into work and walk into the hospital extremely sweaty and wearing spandex.
One final question I had for everyone was if they found that more Scrub Techs were being hired and scrubbing in, or if RN's were still doing a fair share. One thing that was never told to me when I signed my contract at this hospital was that nurses do not scrub in, only scrub techs too.
I am sorry if this has sounded like a long complaint, I am just becoming very frustrated and upset over many situations that have kept arising for me at work. Any insight or suggestions?
