cornpoohRN

HA! Funny you say that, she reported ME!!!. I went to my director the next morning to let her know of the incident (we all work on evening shift) and she told me that she had already gotten an e-mail from her and the only thing she wanted to know was did I scream at her. She stated that I screamed at her when instead I wasn't sure she was hearing me when it took me 5X's to ask her to leave the room. I told my director how greatful that I was that there were 2 other ppl there to watch the entire thing unfold and just ask them.

Yea, well I wanted to tell her "well you're not a RN so you don't know how this end works"!!!!

has anyone ever had to ask someone to leave their room during a case while you were circulating? it happened to me this week. i had a scrub tech come in and try and take over my room and change things up (moving my set-up, trash, dressing stand, etc..). she also took it upon herself to "decide" that she was going to scrub in and assist and be an extra pair of hands---when she was not even assigned to this room! i asked the surgeon if he wanted an assistant and he said "no", but she scrubbed in anyway. when i was going to count with "my" tech who was retracting and (easily) counting rays with one hand, this other one was trying to grab them out of her hand to count with me and neither one of us wanted to count with her b/c she was not part of the case. next, after she broke scrub, the surgeon was closing and i pulled my dressing table, water basin for plaster, and trash receptacle to receive drapes down to the bottom of the field. i'm very organized and ocd:clown:! but she put on gloves and moved all my stuff out of the way. i moved it right back. then she moved it again and i asked her to please not touch my stuff. then she told me that "well you don't scrub so you don't know how things work" oh no she just didn't! i placed my stuff where i wanted it and firmly said don't touch it again. she kept on about how the dr. was going to do this and the table was going to go here and my stuff was in the way. finally, i had had it! i turned to her and said please leave the room, she folded her arms, bobbed her head, and fluttered her eyes and very vehemently said "no". this continued for 4 more times. and she wouldn't budge. so i left to go get the charge nurse who was no where to be found. so i went back in the room and said "her name, i am the nurse, this is my room and you need to leave. she finally left. i was just wondering if anyone has ever had a problem with a person in the or and had to ask them to leave. if you did, how did you handle it? thanks for listening and any input would be great to hear about!

Many OR's are offering new grad residencies. Start looking now for hospitals near you. Look for Periop 101 courses or Versant residencies. They both are great. Good luck.

I work in the OR and everyone always makes fun of me for what I keep in my pockets but who do you think they come to over and over I wear a scrub jacket with 2 pockets. Left pocket has extra mastisol, duraprep remover, medication labels, blank note cards, telfa teggys, several packs of gums-different flavors, a bottle of hand sanitizer (in case a dispenser is out) and usually by the end of the shift I have some suture and other things. The right pocket has 10-12 pens perfectly lined across my pocket. As soon as we get the patient in the room and we have to start "circulating" the jacket comes off. So, I have a scrub top with 2 pockets---the left pocket has 10-12 pens perfectly lined across my pocket. The The right pocket has my phone, a baggy of cough drops, jolly ranchers, mints and cinnamon disks. My cargo pants have 5-6 different colored dry eraser markers, highliter and 2 pair of scissors. They make fun of me but always come running to me for stuff!

I saw a general surgeon remove gobs of duct tape from a young guys stomach that he had injested.

I work 4 10's, 11a-9p, M-Th. Off F, Sa & Su. I love my shift! No early mornings and things are already happening when I get there. I do lunch reliefs then circulate afternoon cases then cases that are scheduled for after office hours. And we are a trauma hospital so I can't think of many evenings that we have not had a case come through the ED.

Just apply. See if the hospital you work in offers perioperative residencies. It is very intense in the OR but once you are there you will be a forever OR nurse!

We use a white board for the initial count and add as needed throughout the case. Our intra op record just has 4 places to document where the two people who did the initial count (names of the circulator and the scrub nurse/tech) then places for initials for the closing and final counts. We just changed our policy for ANY lap case that turns open (unscheduled) must have a mandatory xray before the pt. leaves they room. I carry a couple extra colors of dry erase markers in my pocket so that anything I add to the initial count (which I do in black) I can easily distinguish between it and what I have added to the field (I am a visual person and it helps).

At first I thought I was reading an old article that was posted on AN.com. There was a thread that mentioned hospital's that are already doing this.....https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/enough-is-enough-415217.html I was wondering how JHACO feels about nurses working ovens vs. patient care? On the good side....freshly baked cookies smell better than vomit and poop!

I have a question.......... In our OR, we seem to have 8 or 9 different types of masks. Since I started my oreintation 8 weeks ago, I have started to break out in the areas where the mask cups my face. I noticed 2 CST's wearing cloth masks during procedures. Does anyone else in their OR wear cloth masks? Thanks for any help.

Our machine calculates total time the machine was inflated at the end-no matter how many times we deflated and went back up, 2 or 3 times. Time is time. I agree with everyone else...you are signing the intraop.

Well 4 weeks into my residency and I am spending most of the time in the OR. I am completely overwhelemed! I am so glad that I have a long orientation because there is no way I could get all this in a few months. It is a very fast paced environment, so much equipment, procedures I have never even heard of, etc. The easiest thing is the paperwork! I have the charting down (except maybe implants) with the equipment being so confusing that I feel almost stupid sometimes. I don't mind the pace at all because I like to stay busy but WOW....they were undraping the patient ready for the stretcher for PACU just when I was ready to start filling out my paperwork! I have met some nice & helpful people who seem to care about me and my progress and take the time to help then there are others who could care less if I fall flat on my face. I have worked with surgeons who ignore you and look right through you and others who are nice and explain exactly how they like things--they actually understand that I am a newbie and I did not stay up all night memorizing their preference card because I knew they were coming all week. I had a surgeon say to me...."you're a new nurse? And they let you come to work in the OR?" I wanted to say "You're short and bald.....they actually let you operate?" Instead, I just smiled and told him yes what a wonderful opportunity this was for me. I have only "co-circulated" a few services and look forward to experiencing more, however I think I know which area I would like to concentrate in when I am fully trained. There are many circulators that just do gyn rooms or neuro cases there. Here is a question to anyone that will answer: In your OR are there nurses that seem to concentrate in just one particular area or do they always do everything? I know it is good to be trained in everything, especially for when you have to take call. So, to sum up, I love the OR, I find it very challenging and I have only come home once so far second guessing myself whether or not I could do it. I think it was the nerves but I will not give up! I know it takes a long time to get this whole OR/circulator nurse down so I will be at this a while.

The comments have to stop. There are EEOC laws and every institution enforces them. I am sure that their HR department and corporate attorneys would dookey in their drawers if they knew that was being said in front of you. Look into it. You have signed a contract and you are not the one who has violated the terms of it. No one should have to work in an uncomfortable atmosphere and just "live" with what others say! I am sorry that you are having to deal with this. Good luck.:spbox:

I am a new OR nurse on orientation (4 weeks) and we get 22 week Residency plus a 9-12 month OR orientation. If I knew I was going to be on my own in 8 weeks, I would stress out too! I have not even worked with the same surgeon twice in order to see their "three faces". But I do have to say that I love everything so far! I am glad for the opportunity to work in the OR, it is my dream job. If you are not ready, please, please tell your director. Does your preceptor think you are ready to run your own room? You worked so hard to get your license, protect it by not letting an institution carelessly set you up for failure. When I first read your post I laughed because it sounded like you were describing bits and pieces of my work.....I don't know where things are and think they need to put a GPS tracking device on me so I don't get lost wandering around. Good luck and please post progress.

I am in a residency program and just finished my 4th week as an OR nurse. We have didactic classroom as well as clinical tme with a preceptor. We are starting to make the transition from classroom to more clinical time which has exposed me to so much in the OR's. I have seen all kinds of "TRAIT'S" that I would like to adopt or incorporate into my routine and I have seen some that I definately do not want to adopt. What SquirrelRN71 & midlife_nurse said are true, another one is thick skin. Sometimes it gets intense in there and guess what, the surgeons can be a little snippy and they snip at you! It is a good thing we wear masks because he did not see me stick my tongue out at him! LOL! :msk: The trait in #8 is so true...I can see how arrogance could really be negative. Also, you have to be very quick and be able to anticipate what your OR Team might need. One thing I have seen....there is no room for laziness in the OR!

After reading through this thread I was moved. I just got my license this year. I have never gone through what you guys have so I can't say that I understand exactly what you have gone through so what I will say is WOW...I commend you for picking up, turning around and getting back on solid ground! You all will be an example to manys and inspiring to others. Good luck!

Go to your state's boards web-site and read every inch of it and get all of the information you can. It is better to be prepared before you apply for a license than get blind sided with all kind of problems that hinder yor license application/boards. It is your career/future so do all that you can do ahead of time. Maybe you can call them and ask them about specifics. Good luck!

There is ABSOLUTELY no reason why this should hold your friend up from nursing school. None whatsoever. Good luck!!

Thanks Jeff RN, I started this week, mostly hospital orientation. I have ordered the Alexanders book from AORN and I have joined their membership. My first taste of the OR does not come until next Friday with my preceptor whom I met during my 2nd interview and I really loved her!!! (I do have some knowledge of the OR b/c I was a ST B4 for several years, 14 years ago-I'm dusting the cobwebs off). We are doing alot of classroom studies which I am OK with but can't wait to get into the OR!! This program "Versant" seems to come highly recommended and is supposed to be a wonder for new grads making the transition into the role of hospital nursing. There were 400 applicants for this residency and only 9 were accepted--yes I feel honored in a very humble way knowing the job market and all. I will keep you posted. I am so excited and have that giddy feeling when I go to work in the mornings! Thanks again!!

I was a ST for several years and the reason that I got considered for the OR residency was because I had experience. There were so many RN's that wanted the OR but were turned down b/c of no experience. I think that being a ST works in your favor. However, they did tell me not to come in expecting to scrub (I loved it) b/c they have techs for that, I was hired to circulate and may get to scrub if absolutely necessary. Good luck!

trustingGod, if all you do is commit yourself to the program then you will be good to go! It is hard but well worth it. I graduated in May and was fully prepared for NCLEX. Now, I will not say it was a piece of cake or without stress but that is for each individual to experience and handle their own way. The most positive thing I can say about GPC is that you are prepared for NCLEX~100% and isn't that what we want as an end result? Good luck to you!

Hi! I start my residency Monday and wanted to know how yours was going. Are you doing any specific program? We will be doing a Versant/AORN program that is designed to retain new nurses. It seems very interesting and I am excited. I would love to hear how you are doing. Thanks~

1.what kind of floor are you working on? or~residency 2.where are you from? ga 3.how did you get that job? i applied for a residency position for new grads and was called for a phone interview then was invited to an open house forum/interview. i got called back for a third interview and was offerd the position 3 days later. i did not work in the facility prior but i did have experience in the or. i did fill out many other applications but was set on or. this was my third and final or interview or i was headed right back to school. i was being really picky but knew that or was all that i wanted. good luck and send out tons of resumes and look for opportunities everyday!

Look at the HR policy and go up the chain of command. Document specific incident's w/ dates & times and report. If nothing gets done.....file an EEOC complaint.