OR Staffing

[wmynroots]

I work in very busy 12 room OR that turnover a minimum of 50 cases a day. No matter what the case is, they staff only one circulating nurse and one surgical tech to each room for the day. I am just wondering if this is standard practice in all ORs? At the end of the day we feel like we walked through hell and back! Thanks for any input

[SandraCVRN]

14 room OR, usually 30 + cases in 8 hour day. We staff one Circulator and one scrub for most rooms, 2 scrubs for heart/vascular. We usually have at least 1 extra nurse and scrub, plus we have a nurse that starts at 8 to start giving breaks and lunches. Our second heart scrub usually gets pulled if we are doing anything besides heart/big vascular cases. We also have orderlies to help turn over rooms.

Are you saying for 12 rooms you have 12 Circs and 12 scrubs scheduled each day? Who gives you lunch? What if someone calls in?

[springchick1, ADN, RN]

16 rooms, 50 cases average a day an it's all Orthopedics. Rooms have 1 circulator and depending on the case 1 or 2 scrubs. We have floaters who give breaks and lunches but most of them cannot scrub. Scrubs are pretty much on their own for breaks and some days it's after 1:00 before we get lunch.