heartincalif

HI there... Well I've been in the OR for about 6 months and tho i have learned quite a bit i still struggle with not feeling comfortable let alone confident in the room. I have yet to really be on my own tho i do start and end cases alone and for the majority of the time during surgery i am left. However I just dont feel as tho the OR is right for me. I am relatively new to nursing and prior to the OR i worked in rehab. Vastly different than the OR. If i stay the last 6 months and hope it gets better so i can get a year in and then leave. Or should i just leave now? There are days when i feel i cant do anything right and days where i feel i did ok. When i make minor misjudgments as far as getting the wrong inch of cast padding i feel like a total idiot. Nurses say im too hard on myself, and i need to be more assertive in the rooms. So i dont know if its just me feeling like i cant do the job or what. I wonder if i should just pack it in. I like some of the surgeries... yet i do miss the pt. care, i am more comfortable starting IV's then prepping... any advise would be helpful. Thanks for reading. Deb

I rather like the scrub machine... less laundry for me!! The only real irritation is when the nursing students are trying to get their scrubs and their card doesnt work right yet they continue to try... which is USUALLY the same time i'm trying to get mine!! I may start getting mine before i leave so i dont have to deal with the morning rush.

I was informed at work that a nurse in good standing with over 20 years got royally screwed over. Apparently a count was off by one ray tec. This nurse called for an xray, surgeon said it was neg. pt. was good to go. Well... come to find out the ray tec was in the pt. for over a month, and the xray wasn't up high enough so it was missed. This nurse lost the 'right' to do certain things, i wont go into that just incase coworkers read on this site... anyway i'm rather a new just 3 months in the OR. I was wondering just when does the nurses responsiblity to the pt. end? Are we to watch where the flat plate is positioned or request to look at the xray? I just dont want something like that to happen to me. How can i protect myself from that situation? I dont know if anything happened to the surgeon...

Thanks for the info and encouragment! Its nice to know that EVENTUALLY i'll catch on. I had one surgeon tell me (when i didnt see where the button was for the light) its the button with the picture of the LIGHT bulb. I sure did feel like a nimrod!! I always check where the lights are in the rooms and on the towers now. It sure is a hard dept. I used to think rehab was hard... doing a valve replacment tomorrow so going to read up on it. Thanks again this is really a helpful site!

I've started circulating in the OR 3 months ago. I was wondering how long it will be until i feel competent? I still have a preceptor and have been mostly working in the heart room and bariatrics. When my preceptor left me in alone doing a meatotomy i was fine, yet when left with a green light special one of the most easiest cases (that i've seen so far) i sucked! I do ok in the heart room only because i've been there more and seldom get left in there for more than 10 minutes at a time. I still have trouble setting up the lines and take forever doing them! I feel very slow, and wonder how long it will take to remember how all the equipment works. I discovered i'm not that mechanically inclined!! I just was wondering if I will be able to handle the job. I am supposed to be on my own in December. I am concerned i will mess up and do a pt. harm. Any suggestions would be helpful thanks...

When i was working at an alzheimers unit as a lpn, big former military man known for starting arguments with other residents got angry and left to go (so i thought) to his room. About 5 minutes or so later this female resident was yelling get out of my room. He had taken her nightgown and stripped out of his clothes so the only thing he was wearing was his socks and her nightgown, which was a lovely pale blue silk thing that went to his knees. It took some major distraction to get him to his room and then another 20 minutes to convince him to change! Many of us working there had to leave due to laughing so hard!