Cyan8181

Another thing to think about is how physically demanding scrubbing is. I scrubbed as a CST for 6 years and then circulated and scrubbed as an RN for another six. I work in a 31 room OR that is staffed 24-7. Even with that amount of staff on, there are cases when there is no one to relieve you. I once was scrubbed from 8pm-6am on a ruptured aortic arch aneurysm. I got a 30 min break during a part of the case that a non open heart CST could scrub for me, but that was it until the morning team got there and scrubbed me out. I have several CST friends that went to nursing school in their 40s and early 50s because they said the job was going to become to exhausting as they got older.

That's an interesting idea. Will you be doing any nursing at all over the next year? I went through an accelerated one year CST program myself and know how demanding they are, but I was able to work at the same time.

You could not be hired as a CST if you have an RN license. Are you doing any nursing at all? How long is your CST program?

My nurse manager once told me after a particularly bad experience that we work in a field where mistakes are going to happen and that some of them are going to be big ones, but that she decided early on that if she were going to be an effective nurse then she was going to have a set time to obsess/cry/grieve about a mistake. Her set time was 24 hours. After that you go back to work as a better nurse because that is a situation you are unlikely to find yourself in again. PS - not prepping a patient isn't one of the big ones...

We don't have any NPs who work exclusively in our OR, nor do we have any positions that I know of that are targeted at advance practice nurses specifically. Our nurse managers and clinical leaders all have a minimum of a BSN, and our staff development/educator person has a master's in education, but none are NPs. We do have NPs who come to the OR to assist the surgeons that they work with/for. The assisting is a very, very small percentage of their time. When they aren't assisting, they are rounding, working with patients, doing orders, etc. You can definitely spot the ones who are comfortable in the OR and the ones who aren't. I would ask if the position in the OR would give you the opportunity to scrub. If not, I'm not sure how much of an advantage it would give you to have circulating experience with little hands on floor patient experience. Also, a lot depends on the type and size of hospital you work for whether or not their NPs spend any time in the OR to begin with. At our teaching hospital it's mostly residents and PAs with the occasional NP. Good luck with the decision. Make it and don't look back.

We open both a vag washoff kit as well as a foley kit. I frog-leg (or stirrup for some of the docs doing a TAH) and use the 6 sponges with scrub, dry and follow with the 3 sponge sticks and paint. I prep from the symphysis pubis to the inner thighs to the lady parts to the orifice. Then I insert the foley throwing away the cleaning stuff that comes in that kit (cotton balls, plastic grasper, packet of betadine). By the time I'm finishing up, someone (surgeon, resident, NP, PA, CST, med student, RNFA, another nurse, whoever!) has started prepping the abdomen with either duraprep or chloraprep.

Acclimating to a new area is always tough, but I'm sorry it's so hard going. Does your OR have a formal periop program? How long is the average orientation? How long have you been there? Do you have any sort of schedule that tells you how long you'll be working with different people? I'm sure this goes without saying, but are you acting interested? And that means in what everyone is doing, including the orderlies (that's what they're called at my hospital), patient transporters, etc. I'm sure that you don't let support staff think you only care about learning 'nurse-y stuff' and that their work isn't important to you, but maybe they don't see that, so verbalize it. The orderlies/support staff where I work always go above and beyond for me because I go always go above and beyond for them. Good luck!

They'll be staffed 24-7 then so there might not be a lot of call. You could always see if they train and have call for laser or cell saver though.

The only specialty at my hospital that covers their own area exclusively, and so takes call, is Open Heart. Other than that we are staffed with three teams on the weekends and two teams overnight so we don't normally have any call.

yoland, use your resources. How are your relationships with the surgeons and PAs who round on your floor patients? My boss (in charge of the neuro area of the OR) interacts with the surgeons and PAs all day. Can one of them introduce you? When I was working as a scrub during nursing school I mentioned to one of the surgeons I was interested in checking out the neuro floor to see where all our patients went when we were done with them. He invited me to rounds and then sent an email to the floor nursing manager and me both introducing us which opened the door for a face to face meet with her. She didn't have any positions at the time I was graduating, but it was a great discussion and she told me to stay in touch while I was in the OR and she'd let me know if there were any openings I might be interested in. It works in both directions. I'm sure my boss would agree to meet with a floor nurse for an OR info session if one of the surgeons or PAs requested it on an RN's behalf. Also, how's your boss? My boss knew I was open to working outside of the OR so talked me up and put me in touch with management of other departments. Good luck!

Is your surgical tech program one or two years? If you went to nursing school, ADN or BSN? Is there a wait list for either? I know two people who are on the waiting list for nursing school (about two years out) and went to tech school in the meantime.

That sounds so awesome! It's going to be really hard not to see my school peeps all together in one place every day.

Yay us! NCLEX tomorrow morning and graduation Thursday night, in a white nursing dress with hat, no less. Ugh. But after that it's on to the surprise vaca to Europe my spouse planned and hid from me for months. I start my new job May 6, but have decided to not go back to my current job full time in the meantime. I need the time off!

Congratulations! I passed my final today as well, but my school doesn't have graduation until next week. That's okay, it will be a week and a half of bliss! What are your plans after next week? Job yet?

The only difference in pay at our place is between the Open Heart team and the non Open Heart team, ie everyone else. Because we're staffed 24/7 there is generally no call for any of our OR staff with the exception of OH. Because they cover their own area, they take call and respond. Seeing as I was considered the 'Black Cloud' when I was scrubbing there, I (and the RN on call with me) made a lot of extra money!