Circl8r

Congrats on starting school, and kudos for your interest in the OR. There are opportunities out there, I would recommend checking with your local hospitals.

As a registered nurse, it is is your duty as a professional to report this to your state board of nursing. If she's done it once, she'll do it again, and needs to be stopped before something catastrophic happens to a patient. Remember, the bottom line IS the patient!

The travesty here is that someone can come from a foreign country 9 month pregnant; no prenatal care, no cash, and no English, and walk into any hospital to give birth. After birthing that baby, (who is now an American citizen, by the way; we, the taxpayer gets to foot the bill. And YOU can't move across state lines?>? That's just plain cra*pioka! This is BEYOND wrong!

The practice of putting the bair hugger tubing underneath the sheet or blanket and and turning it on is potentially contaminating your sterile field with lint from the sheet/blanket. Good intentions in theory, but in reality, not a good practice.

Ladies and Gents: If you want to warm the bed prior to placing the patient on the bed, I would heartily suggest using the bair hugger blanket. Placing the hose between two sheets or a bath blanket will only succeed in compromising your sterile field. You're blowing lint all over the room. Just cuz you can't see it doesn't mean it ain't so.

Greetings colleagues: Just taking a little poll of the country, here. I know the flashing of instruments goes against AORN's recommended practice:nono:, however, I am interested in answere from around the country. How often do you find it necessary to flash entire instrument trays and is it due to lack of inventory? Do you used a closed system such as a flash-pak? Thanks much!

Hi: We wear masks in any room that has opened sterile supplies. In the institution that I work currently, we also wear masks in the sterile core because occasionally a scrubbed person steps in to retrieve flashed items from the sterilizer.

I'll never cease to be amazed at how some people can twist another's words to fit their needs. I am neither standing on higher ground, nor am I casting insults, young man. I merely stated that your current knowledge base after three years can and will be built on daily and you'd continue to learn new things every day. How do you see that as having your experience thrown in your face? And trust me, after a few years in the OR you WILL count on those years of experience when speaking to issues that you are passionate about. On that note, I am not one to insist on doing things because "that's how we've always done it" and when I am wrong, I admit it. I believe in continuing education and keeping current on all issues and practices that affect my nursing practice and my patients. I am passionate about what I do, and if you see that as looking down on you, I must say that I am sorry that you see it that way. Neither did I say that you were personally trying to shove anything down anyone's throat. IF you read my statement, it was a generic generalization about thrusting one's opionion upon another.

OR male nurse, is there a reason that you feel that this thread must turn into a pi**ing match, because in my humbly opinionated opinion, that's what it's become. I'm sure that after three whole years in the OR you have a great knowledge base on which to build upon; however, I have found after twenty plus years, that EVERY day in the OR is a learning experience. If you think you know it all and that only your answer is the right one, karma will come back to bite your butt, I guarantee it. For this issue, I don't think there is a right or a wrong, but a 'different'. Different places do different things and it works out fine for them. It never works to shove one's way of thinking down anyone else's throat, whoever is doing the thinking. As long as the end result is safe patient care, that is what matters. We are all in the OR to make sure that our patients are well cared for and and have great outcomes. It is not a place for nurses to have big egos, as we must all work together for the common good...even if we don't agree with colleagues who work with us, or across the country from us.

Shodobe, thanks for your input and backup! We should oughta know something with 50 years in the OR, eh? :bowingpur

Are you aware that your preference card is as good as a doctor's order? If they are on your preference cards, you are covered and don't have to ask. On another level, check and see if there is a set of indicators in your facility that automatically qualify your patient to wear them as part of venous thrombosis prophylaxis.

I had a surgeon who called them "Oscars"...like little rewards, and have asked surgeons if I could bill for the procedure! I've seen some real 'clinkers' in my day! Remember when our Moms used to tell us to wear clean underwear in case we got hit by a bus? I always told my kids to make sure their belly buttons were clean!

I know an anesthesiologist: ISNOOZM A CRNA: SLEEP3 A Urologist: PLUMBR8 A Cardiologist: PQRST U My former plate: JUST A RN (inside joke), then DONA RN1 I changed plates and removed all references to nursing. I hear that if you bypass an accident scene and someone sees that you are an RN, you can be held accountable. Don't know if it's true, but THIS RN's not taking a chance!

Then there's the ever popular labor "epidermal" for pain relief And my dear mother (God rest her soul) who took HARmones and antiBEEotics... This thread is a hoot...I'm really enjoying it!

NO, all places are not alike. If I were you, I'd give my two weeks and hit the happy trail. There ARE places out there that actually care for their nurses. If it's feasible, try finding a magnet hospital to work at. While not without issues, for the most part, they are great places to work!

I haven't got a brain.. Only straw.How can you talk if you haven't got a brain? I don't know.But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking,don't they Your quote says it all....

Must be really hard to walk around with that huge chip on your shoulder. NO one was taking shots at CMAs...only at those professing to be nurses who are not. Time to get over yourself...jeesh

To the CMA's who are defending their postion: no one is disparaging you personally. The point of this thread is that anyone who is NOT a nurse is not to represent themselves as such. The ethics of any person who either calls themselves or someone who works for them a nurse surely needs to be called into question. In the big picture, we are all part of a team. In the OR, the surgeon, anesthesiologist, RN and tech are all team-members. They work in concert to provide the safest patient care they can in order to achieve optimal outcomes. However, no member of the team represents themselves as any other, and no one oversteps their bounds. As it should be in every area of healthcare. Period.

http://nursingworld.org/gova/titlepro.htm The above link lists all states that have title protection. Boggles the mind that anyone could be so stupid as to pass themselves off as something that they are not...

It's a shame that you have such an unethical DON. I would hope that others would see that and report it to someone higher up. Congrats to you and your unit clerk for sticking to what's right!

And don't forget the ever popular labor 'epidermal'!

I'm 51 years old and have just returned for my BSN...to the University of Phoenix online...you betcherbutt I obsess over my grades I proudly suffer from middle-aged over-achiever syndrome. I think I'm making up for my lackluster performances in high school. The ADN program that I attended in the mid 80's was extremely tough. It weeded out the people who really didn't belong in nursing. I graduated on the Deans List, with honors, it was a 30something goal of mine at that time. The class did extremely well though, ours was the first class in a very long time to have a 100% board passage rate. Good luck you you!

...abusive surgeons will get theirs in the end! I have a friend who took a ration of crappola from one nut case, and went home and shared it with her husband. That night, the husband called the doc at home and told him that if he EVER deemed to speak to his wife again in anything less than a professional manner he would be waiting for him near his car. (He was a monstrously big man, and the surgeon knew it) A less than perfect way to handle it? Heck yeah, but...totally effective. The jackass was sweeter than pie to her everafter :kiss Here's my advice for what it's worth: 1. Never get into a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent. 2. NEVER let them see you cry. :imbar 3. WRITE, WRITE, WRITE and make copies of the incident reports when it occurs. 4. If your hospital does not have a policy on inappropriate physician behaviour, contact your risk management office and tell them what is going on. Sorry if I sound less than professional, but...I can't take idjits who think that they can abuse anyone in their path when things don't go their way. Betcha a dollar that they don't do that at home!!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and give you the REAL reason I went to the O.R. to begin with. Back in '1908' when I started, you never worked weekends, off shifts, or holidays in the O.R. I was BURNED out on working all of that, and when an opening came up, I grabbed it. I was hired because I had knowledge of sterile technique from prior experience in L&D. Ok, so...time goes on, and I absolutely fall in love with the specialty. I love the patients, the procedures, the environment. There is no place else I'd rather work, and no matter what else I do (like being the anesthesia coordinator), I will be an O.R. nurse til I die. I keep my skills sharp by working registry at night, and on weekends, believe it or not!!! As president of our local AORN chapter, I'd like to invite you to check out AORN at http://www.aorn.org. Consider a student membership and get a WORLD of interesting info! In case you did not know, nursing students get FREE registration at AORN congress, which will be held in San Diego, CA; March 21-25, 2004. Good luck!! Donna

Greetings: We have just been switched to US Surgical Suture. The surgeons dislike it immensely. Some have had problems with needles popping off on non-popoff sutures, wound dehiscence, and other things. The chromic is especially crappy, and one of the reps had the N*E*R*V*E* to tell the surgeon that she wasn't tying her knots correctly!! Give me back Ethicon! Any other experiences out there?? Donna