Ok I dont like ortho

Published

Ive been a nurse for about 5 years, floated, done agency, rehab, tele, medsurg. But about 4 months ago I got a job on an ortho-medsurg floor. I honestly dont like it much. Not very critical and mostly manuel labor. Push meds, remove the pca's, get patients out of bed with a walker and that takes about 5 minutes. Then get them to the comode, then back to bed then pain med after. And since its a 4 bed ward, the other 3 ortho patients realize one after another they want the same.

I have no problem with the patients and Im very pleasant and curtious. I just miss telemetry and more critical med surg complications. More of a rant.

Specializes in Psychiatry.
Maybe you should move on and stop moaning and groaning about it.

wow, that's helpful. :eek:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Agency, ortho, tele, med surg, icu, er.

ha well 2 more months I can do internal transfers. Im already doing searches now.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

No disrespect intended toward ortho nurses, but for me personally, working ortho would make me want to stab my eyeball with a fork. If you don't like it after only 4 months, I agree, get out. Good luck finding something you like!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ortho, med-surg, LTC, hospice, Quality.

Give me a couple total hips, a couple total knees, an open tib-fib, PCA pumps, skeletal traction, and CPM machines and I'm a happy gal!!! You can even throw in a little old lady who fell and broke her hip who is now trying to crawl over the siderails!! Oh, and if i get to Narcan the MVA that just came up from the ER, well that's just too cool!!!:yeah:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Ortho, Neuro, Detox, Tele.

im always partial to calling in the ortho surgeons to make them gauge the pressure on a suspected compression sydrome patient(only happened once at 2AM, but hey, the female nurses told me thanks for giving them the site of a ortho surgeon in his pajamas!)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Medical Surgical.

Oh how I wish ortho were boring! I long to be bored, but I never am. Just like every other part of the hospital now, flying in and once they're the least bit stable they're out of there. Not to mention the comorbidities and the medical overflow. Like another poster says, it kicks my butt night after night.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in pulm/cardiology pcu, surgical onc.
One poster mentioned something that has been happening with me also. I am brand new on this ortho/neuro floor, and these nurses who have been on this unit a long time don't answer their call lights, or respond to their patients after I go in the room and they have specifically requested "my nurse Jane or Joe so and so." I can't get any of my own work done. I don't get why I need to be tending to other's patients and doing their PCA's, total cares, IV pumps etc. I am finding that the ortho part of the patient isn't near the care involved as all the co morbidities that I am doing nursing care for. It is total care for those patients. I am disappointed and can't see myself there for the one year I promised myself to have to be a better candidate for a new job. Do I bail out now and take my chances of going to a better new grad position elsewhere to gain time, or stay there because it is a large reputable hospital and hard to get on with hospitals right now.

One thing I've learned to do is stay in my own pt's rooms as much as possible, computers at the bedside for charting make it easy. We use voceras so I know if I have another pt calling me. Not that I go out of my way to not help my co-workers but some are slackers and definitely would not help me. It just happened the other night that a call light was going off forever and another nurse was sitting right outside the door at a computer ... Grrr.

With the job market the way it is it may be real tough to find a job as a new grad, I would recommend just sticking it out for a year and transfer.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.
Maybe you should move on and stop moaning and groaning about it.

I am unhappy where I am as well and I do wish it were always that easy to take your advice. Unfortunately,

some things make it not so easy. Pretty much, I would have to switch employers, AGAIN, for the fourth time in three years. Money and benefits are good here, and that's hard to let go of. The economy is making it hard

to find new jobs. Soooo... sometimes all we can do is vent.

As for ortho, I actually rather liked it and would be happy on a floor with nothing but hips and knees. =) And shoulders.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I love my ortho trauma floor. I have had to float to a couple different medical floors recently and HATE it. Everyone was jaundice, no ones liver/kidneys were functioning, and most had some sort of bowel issues (rectal tubes, diarrhea, c-diff). I like that my patients are for the most part generally healthy, they just broke something. Give me a couple open tib/fib fractures, a brachial plexus, a few spinal fusions, and throw in a farm injury for good measure and I'm a happy camper.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.
I love my ortho trauma floor. I have had to float to a couple different medical floors recently and HATE it. Everyone was jaundice, no ones liver/kidneys were functioning, and most had some sort of bowel issues (rectal tubes, diarrhea, c-diff). I like that my patients are for the most part generally healthy, they just broke something. Give me a couple open tib/fib fractures, a brachial plexus, a few spinal fusions, and throw in a farm injury for good measure and I'm a happy camper.

If you like it, that's great! That's the wonderful thing about nursing, is there are so many different areas to work in. I just happen to know that for me, ortho would not be fulfilling. But kudos to those who do like it! :up:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion