OR nurses - how long to get used to the smell?

i am in my 3rd semester nursing school, and had a very good experience in the or for my clinicals. i am very interested in becoming an or nurse, but i can't stand the smell when they cauterize. is there a trick to mask the smell, or do you just get used to it?

i was right there with you my very first observation in an operating room about 17 years ago! they were removing a sebaceous cyst from the back of this man's neck, and used the bovie a lot. i had never been (awake) in an or before, and the smell was overwhelming! i had to leave the room and come back again four times before i could hang with it long enough to watch them finish the case. i just kept throwing myself back in there, having kept up the self-pep-talks about how hard i worked to get in to the cst program to begin with, and how others were sacrificing for me to be able to do it. it took a while - but i think i just finally got accustomed to it over time, as the progam and my experience progressed.

a lot of the time though, because i'm always scrubbed in, i try to use the suction to pull the bovie smoke away from our faces and cut down on the odor. smoke evacuators are sometimes available, and have special filters for catching all the "nasties" that are still in the smoke when it comes from the vaporized tissue. most places i've been though use them with lasers and not regular bovie smoke. there have been several studies that revealed that live viruses are still viable in the smoke, and it's certainly stuff i wouldn't want to inhale!

if the smell continues to bother you after some time has passed, most ors i've been in keep a bottle or two of oil of wintergreen available. all you have to do is take a tiny tiny bit and smear it in the inside of your mask. it should kill any and all odors before they get up your nose. failing that, vicks vaporub might work, and sometimes a laser mask helps too, if you tie it properly. mostly i just count on olfactory fatigue setting in after a few minutes, and unless it changes character drastically, i don't notice it too much.

Hi,

Im a surgical tech who is now in nursing school , I too at first couldnt stand the smell of human flesh when the caurterize, a OR nurse i know use to carry vanilla flavor in her pocket and before surgery she used to put a lil underneath her lip this minimizes the stinch . But gradually over time you will get used to it . I dont even smell it more ! hope that helps you out

You do get used to the smell. You'll also smell things a heck of a lot worse than Bovie smoke!

Shari is right, most places either have some kind of smoke evacuator equipment, or the tech will use the suction to suck the smoke out of the field. This smoke is thought to be carcinogenic, BTW.

You'll get to the point where very little bothers you(sight and smell wise).

Thank you for the reply's. I will try to put some of the wintergreen oil inside my mask, and see if that helps.