RNPinkShoes

Alegria's hands DOWN. I think Danskos and Crocs are dangerous in my opinion. When I had Crocs, I tripped on the them all the time and fluid would get into the holes on the top of the shoes. Danskos to me were heavy and clunky, and if you accidently roll your ankles you can get injured. Alegrias have a rocker bottom to them so they rock with you when you are walking around, and they come in a whole bunch of colors and styles. The bottoms have the memory foamish material and they are easy to clean. Over half of the staff I work with wear Alegrias.

Someone saying that OR nursing is not 'real' nursing.. is like saying floor nurses are just glorified butt wipers. Sure, being on the general floors, you get to utilize a lot of basic skills learned in nursing school. HOWEVER, there are tons of wonderful and unique nursing specialties. Diabetic nurses, wound and ostomy nurses, OR nurses, ect..... even though they may let go of some of those nursing 'skills' used on the floor, we get to focus on that one area of patient care and really MASTER it. OR nursing is unique, and different. It is very technical. We handle a lot of equipment (many if not handled right can seriously harm patients), and instruments. We still do patient care, but yes, much different than on the floor. We still do assessments, and take care of patients while under anesthesia. We stand up for them, catch surgeon errors (a lot), and make sure they are receiving the best care possible. We still do basic nursing skills such as applying dressings, put in foleys, mix medications, I put in IV's (usually in kids when anesthesia is busy), chart, and I am always aware of patient status (it's not just the CRNA's job). I make sure everything has been done pre-op before I bring the patient to the OR (there are many times I catch abnormal lab values that hadn't been followed up on, or orders that have not been carried out or written). I have to be familiar with what meds the patient is on that may hinder certain procedures (ex. if I see a patient is on Flomax, I need to know the surgeon is aware before peforming cataract surgery in that it may hinder eye dilitation and increase risk of complications). I call codes, do chest compressions... tell me again why I am not a real RN? Being on a general floor makes it easier to transition to another general floor. But transitioning into a specialized area is difficult for a nurse working on the floor, just as going from a specialized area to floor nursing is difficult. Am I making ANY sense at all? lol

As a supervisor in the OR, I get to participate and conduct plenty of interviews ) The main thing that I look for is confidence and a TRUE DESIRE to work in the OR. Someone who is outspoken, pays attention, and seems excited for the potential position. We have been getting RN's right out of school who just want to 'try it out' lately... most of them quit within six months of hire, so we want to know that you are serious about this position. I really stress confidence. We are leery about hiring quiet people... we want nurses who we know can stick up for themselves in tense situations, and can handle testy coworkers and surgeons. We want nurses who can work as a team, help others, and TAKE INITIATIVE in their learning. As for questions YOU should ask, I don't know what the manager has told you about the position. A lot of questions we get is about orientation. A good question that we love to hear... "What do you expect of me as a nurse in the OR? What kind of qualities?" ....that's a gold star Any other questions? Good Luck! Good luck!

Which gets me thinking..... isn't it horrible the way we treat each other sometimes? We are all here for one reason only... the patient... no matter what the rank or job title. The worst I have witnessed was a couple years ago. We were transferring a patient from the OR table to cart at the end of the procedure. The PA walked away from the cart without putting the side rail up. The brave and gutsy nursing assistant kindly told him that he forgot to put the side rail up.... way to go for being a patient advocate!! Later, he cornered her in a utility room and yelled at her. He got two inches from her face,and yelled to never, ever correct him again, because she was just a nursing assistant and he was her superior. The moment she came to me I wrote him up BIG TIME.

Nicely said! The unique part of OR nursing is that we work in an area where all different kinds of specialties and "ranks" work very closely together in the same department, every single day, which makes it easy for us to "ruffle our feathers" at each other... and this topic definitly brings this out! We all have our special jobs and talents that bring us to together to provide the best patient care... but no matter what, we will always think that the scrub tech thinks they know everything and can take on any role; all the circulator does is chart and play on the computer; CRNA's just sit behind the drape and play sudoku; Anesthesiologists don't do anything; PA's think they are surgeons; and CPD people are stupid and can't put instrument trays together right! It's never ending.

I do understand both sides of the story. I don't think that some scrub techs understand the big picture of what nurses are there for. We went to school specifically to study the care and monitoring of patients. We were trained in extensive anatomy and physiology, medicine, disease processes, and assessment. We learned to be patient advocates. We learned how to talk to patients and their families. We never really trained in ANY specific area of nursing during school. We were trained patient care across the board. After school we went on to the floor that we chose... and learned specific things pertaining to the floor we were on whether it was ICU, ER, or Operating Room. As nurses in the operating room, we know everything about our patient, and are on constant awarenness of what may happen. Where I work we bring our patients back and talk with them... answer any questions, ease their nervers and are contantly assessing their status. To be a good nurse you can't rely just on anesthesia to assess patient status. YOu have to be aware of what may happen and be able to jump in and know what is going on if something is wrong and anticipate what the patient may need. Scrub techs go to school specifically for the operating room only... they are trained in the set up and safe handling of instruments. And yes, I agree, they were mainly hired because it is quick training and cost effective. They don't have much responsiblity when it comes to patient care... they are to be supervised by the RN and the RN is accountable for them. That doesn't mean they don't have any value in the operating room. I may have came to the OR knowing patient care.... but running the OR, instruments, and procedures I learned mostly from scrub techs... THANK YOU But that doesn't mean I don't agree that hospitals should hire all RN staff.... I guess I wouldn't mind it. I think they are pluses and minuses to each side. I do believe, however, that all RNs should know how to scrub.... it should be required.... I think in order to supervise a scrub tech they need to know how to be one ) I have been an OR nurse for five years and fought my way into scrubbing... now I do it all the time... love it, love it, love it. It has made me a much better operating room nurse.

Yes, my #1 pet peeve is a couple scrubs that I work with who think they are God. I am a nurse who everytime we set up and before I get the patient, I ask anesthesia if they are ready, and I ask the scrub if I can get them anything before I go. There is one in particular who EVERYTIME it doesn't matter if it is a simple ear tube case or a big ortho case, there is something she needs me to open the minute I walk in the door with my patient. The other day I brought in a screaming child.. and the minute I got the child onto the bed, holding her down while trying to put on monitors while anesthesia gassed, she asked me in a demeaning tone to get her three items from the case cart.... AAAARRRRGHHHHHHH!!!!!! AND IT GET'S BETTER.... I told her that I would get them for her when I could.... and a minute later when I was trying to get the patient situated and positioned and warmed up..... she goes... "ummm, can you please get the stuff I asked for?" AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't ask me during this time... and for God's sake I've got my priorities sorry you are not one of them right now! I am also one of those nurses who will make sure the scrub has things like local medication on the table and saline.... ect. before we start the case. There are those couple of scrubs... I will be working with them one day on five cases and each and every time they tell me they need saline and local when I come into the room... like I am stupid or something argh. And those in CSPD.... I know they work hard but when we don't have stuff we need for cases it becomes a patient safety issue. We constantly have instruments missing from our trays, wrong instruments, ect. Also our case carts aren't completed many times..... and they don't even bother letting us know The other day we had 12 cataract cases. They go by super fast. Our first three cases went by smoothly like usual. When setting up for the fourth patient we noticed our Phaco tubing kit was missing from the case cart (ummm... it's impossible to do a cataract without it) We called CSPD and who said that they did not have anymore because they weren't ordered. Okay stop right there..... NO ONE EVEN BOTHERED to inform us... now there are eight patients admitted already ready to go with IV's in.... and you didn't bother to tell us that the most important piece of equipment was not ordered like it was no big deal. Luckily, we were able to scramble and call several other surgery centers to see if they had any we could buy from them.... and ONE did.... lucky. Other than that.... I love being a surgical nurse!!!!