NurseSpanky

Interesting enough, I was in your same shoe 4 years ago. I was an ortho rep with a decade of experience in the OR. I had a rapid reduction of business and decided to cut my losses and go back to school to be an OR nurse. It has been an interesting journey to say the least. I graduated this May and have an interview in a week for a Periop residency program. 1 thing that I have learned is that there are many interesting facets of nursing. I hope to get back to the OR to use some of my hard won orthopedic knowledge, but if that doesn't work out, I'm sure that wherever I end up will be rewarding. Feel free to PM if you have any questions.

Hope it helps. Good luk with NS.

I had a pair of Danskos that I wore out in the OR. Loved them. Tried to replace them but noticed they didnt fit the same. After some checking I found out that Dansko used to be produced by Sanita but were now made in China. Big difference in fitting and comfort for me. I have 2 pairs of Sanitas now. I wear crosstrainers when I work the floor but love my clogs for when I scrub in.

I was in Ortho sales for a decade. I went into the OR and helped the OR staff install my implants. My formal training to that point was as a mortician of all things! It was alot of self learning. The training program was limited. You learn by doing. I literally have a medical library that some orthopods would be jealous of in my office at home. I worked an average of 70+ hours a week. I was on call 24/7 for my trauma implants. I generated alot of sales and $$$$. The bad thing is expenses eat up alot of the $$$$. If I had looked at the hourly break down Im sure I would have gotten out long ago. The positives for me was I was a big part of people walking again. My implants healed people crippled with OA or fractures. Being present in many difficult cases I was able to offer guidance in cases that went terribly wrong to acheive a positive outcome. It was very rewarding in that regard. The reason I got out was I had a surgeon who was 85% of my business decide he didn't like my company anymore and chose another company. It pretty much killed my business. Big Boy rules apply in sales. If you get new business you are taking from some one else. I was always more interested in the patient and their outcomes than the thrill of the sale. I decided it was time to go back to school and gain a degree I could help people with that will allow me to use my experiance. I was a star on my Ortho clinical rotation. I'm working on my ADN now and will definatly get my BSN in case I want to get back into sales. I doubt that I will do that but good to have options. I will probably end up an OR nurse but like the options that I will have when I finish school. Hope That helps.

I'm a CNA, Nursing Student and free lance embalmer. I love Aviator, 5.11 pants and Nurse Joe camo scrubs for something different. The best deal for 5.11 online is through LA police gear. Not much higher than cost.

A lot of schools have different requirments and give points for classes already taken. I applied last year for Fall 2009 and didn't get in. With my life experiance the Director of the department told me I would have no problem getting in. Oh well!! In the spring, summer, and fall I finished all the coreqs so all I will have when I get in will be the Nursing classes. trust me, as a displaced Bread winner with a family of 5, I would have rather taken the coreqs as I went. Wasn't in the cards. I have 2 schools in the area, Im applying to both and should have my choice of where I want to go next fall:yeah: . It should be interesting how much of a difference it will make. I do know that some of my classes over the last couple of semesters darn near kicked my butt. :eek:I still did well, but I couldn't imagine taking them on top of everything else. Just be flexible, take it as it comes.

I'm not an Ortho Nurse, I'm actually am applying for a CNA position in Ortho tomorrow and was trying to bone up on the issues of the Ortho Floor. I am a pre nursing student after leaving a decade long career in ortho sales. I hadSupartz which is a competitor to Synvisc and actually had a series of off label injections in my ankle. Synvisc and Supartz work similiarly in that they stimulte the synovial tissue into thinking that there is a higher level of lubrication in the synovial fluids thus causing them to produce more lubrication. Either is transient, leaving the joint in less than 24 hours. It doesn't work as a lubricant or anything like that. All that being said, I had great experiance with the Supartz. The relief for me lasted well into a year after the treatment. The injections were painful as expected, but it really helped me. From what I understand though, it will not help bone on bone joints. I hope this helps. Good luck.

I am a prenursing student taking a technical writing class for my pre reqs. I worked as an Orthopaedic sales rep in surgery for a decade before returning to school. I decided to do something for my manual that I am familiar with and I thought might be helpful. The manual title is "Hemiarthroplasty, a novices guide". This manual is primarily derected for new scrub techs. The reason I decided on this topic is that it is a procedure that is done frequently and the staff might be called upon to do the procedure with out a sales rep. I just want to spell out some of the different treatments for hip fractures and also the actual steps for the procedure. Any advicethat you can share with me about this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

See, I told ya you would do great. There is no doubt that the stress level is up there. It didn't help my instructor always trying to get us all worked up about it. It was all for good though because I was stressed out too about it. Congratulations!!!No you can move on and move up! Yay!!!!:yeah::yeah:

I tested at a place in Shelby. I just wanted to get it over with so i asked for a place that had it everyday. I was the same way. Not really worried about the written, scared to death of the skills. I was worried about some stupid little thing failing me. When I got into the testing room, the nurse proctor was real nice which made it easier. The thing that made it so easy is I literally said every step as I did it. She was fine with that. It was just like in school, 1 step after another. It went very smooth. Seeing as your worried about it, that means your studying, so you'll do fine. Just try to relax. It helped so much when I did that in the testing room. You'll do great. Good luck!

I took the NC CNA test 2 weeks ago. I found it a breeze. The big thing for me is in the skills section, just talk your way through it. Don't psych yourself out before you get there.Good luck!

LOL I posted this and then realized the last post was 2003. That was pre Advamed . The Pharma and Ortho companies have chanfged the way they work quite a bit. I was just reading back posts on the joke forum and ran into the discussion there. It was along day at clinicals and I needed a laugh. Sorry for rehashing something obviously a bit dated LOL

I was an Orthopaedic Sales Rep for almost a decade before finally burning out and returning to school. I am in CNA training now and hope to get into an ADN program in 2009. The changes at least in the Ortho community was striking over that time. When I first started it was all wine and dine the Docs. Also, Surgeons were paid sometimes huge consulting fees, just to use a certain product. (None of mine though, I never felt it was right and refused to deal with surgeons who demanded it and some did!!!!) 2 years ago the government shut all that down (Thankfully!). The Ortho companies paid huge fine as punishment for trying to influence decisions the surgeons made. So hopefully there will be less of this type of abuse. 1 thing that may not be fully understood is the difference between drug reps and surgical reps. Drug reps are mostly company employees and admittedly by some " Paid advertisments in the clinic" (quoted from a former Pharma manager I know!) I was an independent rep who covered my own expenses and actually brought alot of clinincal experience to the Doc. If there was a better product to fix a fracture sold by my competitors I would be the first to suggest it. In my experience I was not alone amoung my peers doing this. For me at least it was about the patient and the outcome. I figured the income would come if I focused on what was important. It worked out well for along time til the end when circumstances beyond my control destroyed my business. Oh well. I am going to nursing schools because I have always focused on the patient and want to take it to the next level. It has been so fascinating for me to see the post op results of the procedures I was a part of even as a CNA in clinicals. I hope this adds a little diferent perspective on the situation. As for the pens and post its and such.... for me they all came out of my pocket. The company paid nothing for them in my situation. I bought them at cost from the company primarily because I knew the nurses and techs appreciated them so much. Again, I am certainly not speaking for Pharma companies. Just my situation.

Sure, open itunes, go to Itunes store. In the search box do a search for Biology 2110/2120. That should get you to Dr. P's podcast. The nice thing about these is they are the complete lectures and seem to coincide with the lectures i remember the last time i took A/P. ETSU has some A/P pod casts as well under ItuneU and health and Medicine. I haven't listened to those yet. They seem to be more condensed though. There is a wealth of tips and knowlege on Itunes. Many nursing tips programs and medical related stuff. Hope this helps.

If you have an Ipod or itunes, there is a series of lectures from an A&P class in Minnisota on Itunes under itunes U. They are complete and you can actually go to the schools website in the show notes and see the teachers pblackboard. The instructor Dr. P is quite good and it is an interesting lecture. Ive been in Health care for years as an Ortho sales rep , Mortician and Pathology assistant doing Autopsies. I've found the lectures helpful in brushing up on the basics. I listen to them when I drive or embalm. My . Let me know if you want more specific directions for finding it.