OR Nursing... Good, Bad, Ugly?

maeyken · Feb 25, 2009

OR nurses need thick skin for many reasons!! :) It comes from people in all roles.

When you first start in the OR it is like a completely different world. Everyone speaks a different language and does funny things It is a steep learning curve. And not everyone is patient and friendly! Some members of the team are not interested in being patient while you learn (even though you teach their residents every day!!) :madface:

In the OR we're often dealing with critical situations. Things can happen faster than you can think... and you have to be able to do everything at the same time and not go crazy, even when you've got 3 docs yelling at you to do something or get something or call this person or send for cbc-lytes-inr-ptt-gasses-calcium-oh-and-get-some-blood-in-here-right-now ... (you get the idea) :banghead:

The OR can be a high stress environment, and everyone reacts to stress differently. Not everyone remains calm, cool, and collected. Some people get angry. :angryfire: Some people swear. Some people swear at you. :chair: Some people freak out and don't know what to do. :bluecry1: Some people manage to hold it all together. Those are the ones we like to work with! :saint: But no matter what's going on, you have to be able to focus on your task at hand, and do it to the best of your ability. And sometimes you need to be able to recognize that your best is not good enough and you need to call for backup! :clpty:

The OR is populated with people who all want to be boss, and there are many large egos. You're dealing with surgeons, anesthetists, nurses who have been there for longer than you've been around :nurse: etc. And everyone thinks they know what's best for the patient. Sometimes you're right. Sometimes they're right. Sometimes you're overruled. Sometimes no one listens to you even though you're right. :argue: And you have to be able to work with these people every day.

But I do love my job! I love calming frightened patients in the moments before their surgery. I love seeing the insides of people. I love helping to fix broken people and those who are sick. I love scrubbing for big abdominal cases- handing instruments, being quick, trying to keep one step ahead of the surgeon. I love learning new things. I love having everything in order for that picky surgeon, being organized so that everything runs smoothly. I love the miracles we see on a regular basis. I love the fun we can have when things are going well. I love how we work as a team, especially when things go bad.

Shift-wise it really varies where you work, and what sort of hospital it is. We're a large enough OR that we are staffed 24/7. We work 8's and 10's, and have a master schedule that includes weekends, evenings, nights, etc. (It's really quite a good schedule though!)

My orientation included my 6 weeks of clinical for the OR course, as well as 4 months (18 weeks) of actual orientation (although it sorta blended together). I did a condensed course (full time for 6 weeks for the coursework) that was offered by my hospital. It was crazy, but there were 9 other nurses going through it with me, and that peer support really helped!

In the clinicals we learned the basics- how to gown and glove, how to set up basic tables, how to scrub for basic cases, names of instruments, how an OR works, etc. After the first day we were all pretty shell-shocked, but we all showed up again the next day!

WildcatFanRN, BSN, RN · Feb 25, 2009

I have an interview tomorrow for an OR position. You answered some questions I had as well...thanks.

netglow, ASN, RN · Feb 25, 2009

Wow what an excellent post!

I am also interested in surgery, but sadly, I'd get kicked to the curb pretty fast. I am too much a take control person. I have this fear of a surgeon reminding me that he is the boss, and of me saying no, no, no, you see I am the boss! ROFL! :lol2:

Jean1313 · Feb 25, 2009

Thanks, Maeyken! That is what I was looking to hear. Though it does sound very intense. It does give me a better idea of what to expect. Now to make the big decision....

lilla_fjaril · Feb 26, 2009

As a newbie, one thing I've learned is that similar to how Eskimos have 23 words for snow, each of the 15,000 odd instruments seems to have 23 names. There's the two names in the textbook. Then, depending on the surgeons there's the old school name, the East coast name, the West coast name, the Canadian name, the UK/European name, the military name, the short nickname, etc. And then there's the surgeons who simply call something by the wrong name out of habit and no one ever corrects them because all the seasoned nurses know how to 'translate' their mistakes. In one day I heard a Richardson retractor called a Richardson, a Rich, a Kelly, and a Deaver. I do not know how to translate so I get looked at like I'm stupid.

I thought I was doing so good because I knew all the textbook names! Too bad no one ever uses them!