daVinciNurse

try reaching out to someone through your local AORN Chapter. http://www.aorn.org should have a chapter directory where you can find your nearest chapter and I would suggest joining the chapter (should be able to do the application on line) and getting involved! (AORN is the association of preoperative registered nurses). I know you said you are in Hollywood, but I don't know which one....I know of Hollywood, CA; Hollywood, FL; and Hollywood, MD. I'm sure there are others out there too!

OR Director and/or OR Nurse Educator. Try joining your local chapter of AORN, check http://www.aorn.org for more info, that may help you network and/or meet nurses who can help you get started. Good luck!!

as my name here suggests, I primarily work with the daVinci robotics system for general, urology, and gyn cases. I dabble in everything except hearts. I LOVE plastics but don't get to see much of it where I am working now. I also feel blessed to have learned to scrub cases as well as circulate. :)

Any procurement I've ever been involved in has been relatively like any other case--still count, prep, document etc as you always would. At some point anesthesia will leave, once all organs have been procured. Clarify with your supervisor about the death certificate specifics. And I've ALWAYS had the nurses/staff from the organization who coordinate everything in the OR with me, and they are MOST HELPFUL. They usually handle care of any organs removed and should help with the preparing of the patient for transfer out of the OR. These nurses are amazing, especially with the family. Ask them any questions, they generally are very willing to explain anything.

"hostile work environment" is another key phrase administration does not like to hear. When I get questioned why I'm "late" getting a patient into a room, its usually due to lack of equipment and/or supplies vital to the case, which falls under "patient safety"--don't want a patient under anesthesia any longer than necessary, and if you are missing items for the case, that can happen very easily.

I was once told it is OK to not have a written order for it all because the ordering physician is standing in the same physical space and its under surgeon's direct supervision. Not sure what/where this info came from or how old it is. Also not sure how true that is, and keep in mind facility policy can over ride it..... I've worked in facilities where I had to write out orders for intraop xrays and other facilities say its not necessary--rumor had it that by the state regs, xray techs could not take "verbal" orders so nurses had to write/read back the order and give it to the xray tech---what a joke....the xrays were usually done by the time nurses ever got around to writing the order.

yes, by all means join AORN, it will give you a slight advantage over other applicants for jobs who are not members. and don't just "join" AORN on paper-- get involved with your local chapter to network and meet nurses who may have the insider-info you need.

two rules of the OR: 1.) if you think its contaminated, it is. 2.)if you are unsure about doing an instrument count, just do the count!! always better to count if in doubt...

Congratulations!! If I may suggest one thing....please ask your educator if for the first month or so you can be paired with just one (or 2) nurses, to learn the basics of how things flow in the OR....getting a pt to the OR, positioned, starting a case, ending a case, helping anesthesia, transferring pt into PACU, and of course learning the ropes with documentation--is it paper? or computer? If you will be on orientation a full year (I had a 9-12 month window of orientation--finished in about 10.5 months), there will be time to learn the specialty specific stuff once you have the basics under control. But you will find every nurse does thing a bit differently, for the same end result. So if you can work primarily with one or two nurses and really feel good about the flow of things, then you can focus on specialty stuff. Others on here may disagree, but I found new OR nurses seemed to do better when they had some consistency up front to learn the basics. Once you know the basics, you will need to be paired with many nurses to learn all the specialties. Good luck!

we document on the "pre-op" paperwork section "Trauma pt taken directly to OR" and we may add any other info as necessary--ID band present on pt's left wrist, pt verbalizes understanding of surgery and/or blood transfusions (if no written consent is present and pt is awake/alert/not intubated), or family/next of kin who is present giving verbal consent. If no one present, and pt is not able to verbalize, I make mention of their mental status, but that's about it. I usually also indicate "report received from Trauma RN _____" and anyone else accompanying pt. When time permits, I do a more thorough review of the chart, but honestly, when its a trauma, the chart is usually minimal and its all I can do to be sure there is an ID band somewhere on the pt. Its nice to get allergies/history, but its not always possible and we do the best we can with what we've got. And make sure the documentation reflects that. Our pre-op nurses can take up to 45 mins to "check in" a pt for the OR.....in a trauma, you don't have that kind of time as I know you know :)

Go for nursing school. The 3 facilities I've worked in all have RNs in charge of SPD, most of whom have an OR background.

Sounds like it went well for you. Be sure to follow up with a handwritten thank you note--that will likely set you apart from other applicants. An email thank you is ok, but the handwritten is something they can actually touch, won't vanish with the click of a mouse! Keep us posted :)

My facility does not put an age limit on it--it is seen as "age discrimination" by the folks in HR. However, nurses with 25 or more yrs seniority/taking call in the dept are exempt from monthly call requirements, but still have to sign up for holiday call in rotation (though they do get 1st choice as they are most senior). Its a courtesy after 25 yrs of service, not an age thing. To keep it legal.

We try to avoid having the same nurse with the same surgeon every time. We try to keep 2-3 nurses/techs who can rotate in and out of several rooms. This way the surgeon isn't totally dependent on one person. What happens at 3am on call? Or weekends? Or when a nurse is sick? Yes, I have several surgeons who I love to work with, and they tell me they love having me in their room....BUT I also make sure i don't "keep secrets" from other nurses as to what a certain surgeon likes/doesn't like. The more I know and share with others, the better things will be for everyone in the long run. Once had a surgeon walk in the room and tell a brand new resident to get in the habit of looking at the instruments on the table before scrubbing in to make sure he would have what he needed....so the guy asked him "what did you look for on this case" and he said "I saw her (me) scrubbed in and didn't need to look any further. She knows all my requests!" Well I of course was ecstatic to get such a compliment, but then again, I worked with him 2-3x a week for 7 years or so, I better know what he wants! Of course, i also make sure preference cards are updated to help anyone else out. Its all about TEAMwork in the OR...and if I don't know something, I am not at all afraid to ask questions--of other nurses, techs, even the surgeon. Better to ask and be prepared then to be caught without having something/knowing something.

I've spent the better part of the past 4 years in robotics and find it quite challenging--a lot to manage within the OR equipment wise as well as keeping the pt safe. I'm quite comfortable with it now, but stick me in a vascular case and I get very antsy--a lot that I don't know very well, I can muddle through it but if given a choice, I'd pass on vascular. Yet others thrive in there. There really is something for everyone. I really like laparoscopic and robotic stuff---its amazing to see what we can do, and I am challenged daily with different scenarios. But as for scrubbing, nothing beats a good open belly case, or a big plastics case. Plastics is another specialty I love--always something new and different.