OR nurses not critical care?

PetiteOpRN · Dec 6, 2010

Yep, but only by nurses who have never worked in the OR.

SandraCVRN · Dec 6, 2010

I'm sure the reason we are not considered critical care nurses is because in the OR there is usually someone with us. We are not monitoring drips, vents, and the patient, we have anesthesia, the surgeon, etc...

AZRN52 · Dec 6, 2010

SandraCVRN...not sure where you have worked but I have worked at trauma centers & you definitely have to know your way around all aspects of nursing, including drips, pumps & especially vents! I've done GI bleeds in ICU that were on vents & the only people in the room were me & the GI dr...the unit nurses wouldn't even come in to offer any help. I'd like to see them in the OR with a man that had been cut in half! We are responsible for everything...you know that. If the anesthesiologist asks us for help or to give meds via a cath you better know what you're doing. Not to mention all of the local/sedation procedures.

Sorry, I just am tired of people thinking surgery nurses aren't "real nurses".

If I'm a patient in any urgent/lethal situation...give me an operating room nurse...she/he works great in stressful situations & knows how/what to do to save me.

Just saying...:)

Scrubby · Dec 6, 2010

I've only come across the term 'critical care' nurses in relation to ICU nurses, not OR nurses. I have no issues with this, as my role in the operating room is to scrub and circulate. We don't give medication, manage airways and all that, that's the role of the anaesthetist and anaesthetic nurse. And I work in a hospital that is the major trauma centre in my state.

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · Dec 6, 2010

Unfortunately, this is true. OR nurses are not considered critical care nurses. If you want to go to CRNA school, they will not accept the OR as critical care experience. Kinda sad, I know.

linguine · Dec 7, 2010

SandraCVRN...not sure where you have worked but I have worked at trauma centers & you definitely have to know your way around all aspects of nursing, including drips, pumps & especially vents! I've done GI bleeds in ICU that were on vents & the only people in the room were me & the GI dr...the unit nurses wouldn't even come in to offer any help. I'd like to see them in the OR with a man that had been cut in half! We are responsible for everything...you know that. If the anesthesiologist asks us for help or to give meds via a cath you better know what you're doing. Not to mention all of the local/sedation procedures.
Sorry, I just am tired of people thinking surgery nurses aren't "real nurses".
If I'm a patient in any urgent/lethal situation...give me an operating room nurse...she/he works great in stressful situations & knows how/what to do to save me.
Just saying...:)

Hi AZRN,

Since it sounds like you have to know your way around drips, pumps and vents.. Do you think that a new grad is able to learn this as their first job? Or do you recommend to start on another floor first?

Some nurse residency programs train new grads to start in the OR (or any specialty) but I am wondering if this would be a disadvantage.

solneeshka, BSN, RN · Dec 7, 2010

In the facilities that I'm familiar with, only ICU/ED nurses are considered critical care, not OR nurses. We pretty much always have at least an MD and anesthesia care provider in the room with us. It's not that we don't monitor our patients, but there are several others also monitoring our patients at the same time and in ways that the ICU/ED nurses have to be able to do on their own. They do things we don't do, we do things they don't do, everyone is valuable! But not everyone is critical care

TakeTwoAspirin, MSN, RN, APRN · Dec 7, 2010

It doesn't get any more critical than when you crack a chest in the trauma bay because the patient isn't stable enough to make it to the OR. Such extreme cases don't happen often, but they do happen. At our facility an OR nurse responds to the trauma bay for all level one trauma calls and believe me you want one of us there if you start having to do anything more invasive than a foley or chest tube.

AZRN52 · Dec 7, 2010

Hi AZRN,
Since it sounds like you have to know your way around drips, pumps and vents.. Do you think that a new grad is able to learn this as their first job? Or do you recommend to start on another floor first?
Some nurse residency programs train new grads to start in the OR (or any specialty) but I am wondering if this would be a disadvantage.

Hi Linguini

I went straight to the OR after graduating, into a formal one year periop training program that consisted of learning to circulate, then scrub every specialty, including open heart. New grads absolutely can/do this!

But I have to be honest wit you...if the time comes that you would like to transfer out of surgery you will have a hard time convincing others that you are a "real nurse" if you have not worked med/surg or ICU. This is the dilemma I am facing now. My nursing instructors warned us about specializing after graduation...I wished I had listened.

Everyone has to do what is right for them. I wish you luck in whatever you decide & WELCOME to nursing!!

XingtheBBB, BSN, RN · Dec 8, 2010

Sorry, I've done both and OR nursing, while challenging, fast paced, and critical to positive outcomes is not critical care. Just like a surgeon is not a critical care physician. You're working around drips and vents and patients who code but you are not "managing" them from a critical care standpoint. The MDA/CRNA is. And I've seen OR nurses do a great job without anyone noticing or caring that the don't know the difference between a phenylephrine drip, a cardene drip, and a precedex drip. Completely different skill sets.

Oh, and in the ICU, I'm expected to stay with my GI patients (for sedation and monitoring) and have scrubbed on peri-code ex-laps. (partly because they know I can, they don't expect scrubbing from most ICU RNs)

meandragonbrett · Dec 10, 2010

Maybe you should contact the American Association of Critical Care Nurses and find out if they consider the OR to be critical care.