OR Nurse pros/cons

Editorial Team / Admin · Nov 28, 2012

Hi all, I may have a chance to do an OR internship, from most people I have spoke with say they love working in the OR. I just always doubt myself on what I can achieve. I was wanting opinions on it, your pros/cons about being an OR nurse.

Pros:

-1 patient at a time, and they're asleep without visitors for the vast majority of it

-teamwork (when it's good)

-call (extra $$!)

-great opportunity to learn anatomy

-variety: can spend 1 day a week in neuro, another in ortho, etc.

Cons:

-There's a lot to learn

-surgeons (some aren't exactly the nicest- they all have bad moments, like when that innocent bystander who took a bullet to the chest is tanking, and the surgeon just lets out a couple f-bombs at the situation, but some are just generally asses)

-call (amount varies from place to place and specialty to specialty- currently, I am tied to my pager and staying within 20 minutes of the hospital about 32-80 hours per week, depending on if it's my weekend- makes simple things like grocery shopping something that just can't be done on a whim- standing in line to check out with a bunch of cold/frozen stuff and hearing the pager go off, knowing there's no way to get the stuff home and still make it to the hospital on time is a bad idea)

There are many other pros and cons, these are just a few off the top of my head. Try doing a search, because if I remember correctly, we've had a couple threads similar to this one before.

Was it extremely hard going through the orientation and learning everything? When did you start to feel comfortable? Thanks

General consensus is that it takes about a year to feel comfortable in the OR. However, you will continue to have days where you feel like it's your first day on the job, especially with new procedures that get developed.

KatieBug713 · Nov 29, 2012

Ok thanks a bunch!