TammyCNOR

We pick our cases in baskets lined up on wire racks. We put all the "have available" supplies in a plastic bag. This includes suture, mesh whatever. Some people are really careful, but there are the ones who would open everything in the basket regardless of the preference card. This has saved us a bit of:twocents:.

We use caskets and have documentation from the manufacturer that liquid inside a sterilized casket is in fact sterile. They do not have filters to change. It was necessary to have this paperwork since it goes against the whole "wet pack" mentality.

Our med room has a lock on the door, we just had our survey and that was acceptable. However...our pharmacy consultant put a med cup of water in the freezer and after frozen put a penny on top of the ice. When checking the temp, she said always check the penny, if it has not sank to the bottom, you know your refrigerator has maintained temp. When the surveyors came through, they were completely disgusted with the penny contraption and threw it away right in front of me, somewhat mocking. I was just doing what I was told! Grrr!!

I agree with everyone else! I get paid for 8 hours and work 10-12. I am Clinical Manager in the OR at an outpatient surgery center. Problem being no call or 2nd shift. I have 10 hr nurses, but if cases run late or have extra rooms running, I am always the one that gets to stay......FOR FREE!!! I always joke about "job security" but actually no one is dumb enough to get suckered into this.

We are dealing with the same type of issue, specifically on our record. There is a place to document that the surgical site is verified/marked. Many times this is not documented by the Pre-op staff because when they were finished getting the patient ready, the surgeon had not been in yet. When the surgeon does mark the surgical site, the Pre-op nurse has moved on to the next patient and does not come back to document. The Pre-op nurses argument is to have the OR nurses fill it in. Our DON feels this is important for the Pre-op nurses to be the 1st set of eyes/hands for correct site surgery and the OR nurses are the 2nd set of eyes to verify correct site. Any thoughts?

I just love when you are answering a page and then get chewed on for not being attentive to the instrument they just dropped or whatever. That happened to me and the Dr screamed, "get off the ******* phone!!!" Soooo when the ER sent xray's of the hip Fx into the OR, same Dr said, "what the story with this?" I promptly replied, "I don't know, that was the message I was taking when told to get off the ******* phone!!" He didn't ask me for anything else. Sweet!

All of our cystoscopes are autoclavable. We do have a new person in SPD, new to us, but not new to the job. I am just bummed that it will be a real challenge to get through our surgery schedule until we get repairs back and of course the huge expense of it all.

Two different Urologists went through 6 cystoscopes yesterday. Variety of cases, laser and no laser. We are aware of the heat issue with the laser, but not all of the scopes were on laser cases. We changed out laser fibers on the cases that involved laser and 2 scopes. The Dr's are experienced with the equipment, I just can't understand what would cause 6 different scopes to be broken/ruined in one day! We have not changed any parameters on autoclaves. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot? We are asking for a detailed damage report on the scopes we have sent in.

We had a difficult time locating a raytec in a spinal nerve stimulator case. Lots of wires on the generator portion made it questionable if we were seeing wires or the threads. We had the sales rep bring in an unopened generator, we xray'd it and bingo... those weren't wires! So glad we kept looking! The Dr had closed and actually broke scrub to write orders in PACU certainly not believing we were missing a sponge.

I worked for a Dermatologist who was a Mohs surgeon. Very cool job for a surgical nurse with small children. It was mostly skin cancer although he did some "lump and bump" type surgeries. He was great about letting the nurses with experience use it. I was suturing on all kinds of cases including facial and skin grafts. Great hours and interesting cases. You never know until you try. I was really nervous to leave a hospital OR to a Derm office, but it ended up being great, I was there over 5 years before my husband's job moved us.

Danskos for me too! I am the clinical manager and walk many miles and also circulate and scrub. I have only slighty rolled from stepping on a cord or something, hasn't been a problem. I agree to try on several pairs, they all fit different.

I page anesthesia the minute I get in the room. Lots of other nurses apply all the monitors, take a set of vitals then call the Anesthesia. That alone can be 10 minutes. Call the surgeon just prior to induction, by the time they wander down the hall, should be just about right.

My best example of this, scrubbed in for surgery, the circulator wheels in my Dad's Ex-wife. I was already scrubbed in, kinda too late to make changes. She knew I worked there, we greeted each other, surgery proceeded.

I can remember in a new job orientation each department head got up and gave there two bits, the head of housekeeping actually said that if something spills on the new carpet after housekeeping hours, "get the nurse" I could have killed him!!!

I can remember an evaluation in my early years... I got an "average" score for promptness on call-back cases. I lived closer than anyone and was routinely there before my teammate. When I questioned my evaluator, she said,"to get an exceeds standard on this, you would have to answer the phone before it rings" Sometimes I think they grade down a bit to give you something to improve and also, they only have so much money for raises. Take it with a grain of salt.