OR vs floor nursing physical demands

[h_page1987]

Hello I am wondering if OR nursing is mostly standing and heavy lifting of instrument trays  as the majority of the physical demands of the job and not so much walking? I had extensive foot surgery and I’m still recovering. I can walk but my gait isn’t 100% normal and it slows me down a little bit with long distance walking. Im thinking that the OR would be less walking than med/surg and ICU floor nursing. I’m considering transitioning out of ICU and into the OR for this reason. I can stand all day it’s just the constant walking that is a challenge for me at this point in my recovery. 

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

It really depends. You do have to transport patients from the preop area to the OR, then from the OR to the PACU or ICU. When I was direct patient care, I would average around 15,000 steps a day- and I worked in cardiac surgery where I only had one patient/surgery most days due to the length. We can knock out a lap chole every hour and a half, so those nurses do a lot of walking back and forth with patient transport. Now, in the scrub role, yes, you are more stationary, but whether or not RNs are utilized in the scrub role will depend on the facility's staffing model, as surgical technologists are an allied health role who complete a program specific to the scrub role (and are cheaper than an RN...)

[h_page1987]

Thank you for your reply! I will definitely take all of that into consideration. The hospital I am looking to work for has scrub techs but also is open to training nurses to be scrub nurses as staffing allows.