poopsiebear

I took the CNOR exam in 12/07 and the exam wasn't bad at all. You definitely need to read the AORN Standards, Alexander's, and Berry and Kohn's texts. I printed the Study Guide from the CNOR Certification website for reference, and I took a review course 2 months before the exam. You do need to know the basics from other services besides OB/GYN because you need to know the incision sites and positioning for other surgeries. You also need to know your anesthesia meds, malignant hyperthermia, infection control, and sterilization. I think every OR nurse should take the exam. Studying for the exam made me understand better why I am doing what I am doing. I think nurses will be more conscientious of their practices when they know the rationale behind their actions. Good luck on your exam.

Positioning for a prostatectomy is definitely a team effort. We usually use 5 pieces of eggcrate foam for each case. We completely wrap each arm with foam from axilla to 2-3 inches pass the fingers and secure it with 3 pieces of tape. We put a small piece behind each knee on top of the yellow fin, and a special cut one for the chest. The patient is also on a bean bag and after the foam is placed and secured, we use 2 rolls of tape to secure the patient to the bed.

We have the robot for 3+ years and we use it everyday in either urology or thoracic service. We average about 10 cases a week. In Urology, we do mostly prostatectomies and some pyeloplasties. Our 1st robotic prostatectomy took over 8 hours, now we can do 3 cases in a day and be done be 5 p.m. In Thoracic, we use the robot for a lot of our VATS, from mediastinal node dissection to lobectomy to IVOR Lewis Esophagectomy.

We do have a designated staff for the robot because there's a lot of technical things to learn. The staff needs to know where to place the console, robot and the monitors depending on what procedure you are doing. Our OR has 13 rooms and we have 6 nurses and 5 techs trained to use the robot (including day and off shifts). For the first case, it takes us about 45 minutes to set up, and the subsequent cases take much less time because the robot is already all hooked up. All our surgeons went through training before starting the robot, and we have robotic classes for our staff in the OR. I was told that when we first started using the robot for prostates, the case would take 8 hours. Now, we do 3 prostates a day and we are done by 7 p.m.

I considered traveling nursing a while back and learned a lot from nurses who are traveling from this website: http://forums.delphiforums.com/travelnurses Good luck!

I've been doing robotic cases for 1 1/2 years and it's been a great learning experience. We mainly do urology and thoracic cases with the robot and it's a lot to set up for those cases. I do mostly thoracic cases and if there was a robotic prostate the night before, I had to go in extra early to set up the room because their robot/console setup is completely different from ours. What type of cases do you use the robot on? In a typical week, we do about 5-6 prostates and 2-4 VATS. We sometimes do 3 prostates in a day and that can get hectic in between cases because we only have 1 set of instruments. It's always a mad rush to break everthing down and send instruments to be processed for the next case.

I've been in the OR for 5 years and had 2 boys since then. Like MissJoRN said, OR is physically demanding, but it certainly is doable. I am not trying to scare you, but I have only known a handful of nurses who carried their pregnancies to their due dates. A lot of them, and myself included, was on bed rest for one reason or another toward the end of the pregnancies. It's really important to have a great support team at work. I started having contractions at 20 weeks and my OB told me to take it easy and not take any call. I was on the heart team so the call was too much for me to cover. My co-workers were awesome and took turns covering my calls. My manager also made sure I had pee breaks because there are days I had to go every hour. The relief shift always gave me first lunch because they didn't want the baby and I to starve. If OR is where you want to be, go for it! Don't let your baby plans stop you from being an OR nurse.

Where I work, our preference card is our charge sheet, and the preference list comes up with each case cart. It makes it easy for those who pick for the case and those who are in the room to know exactly what each surgeon wants. We also have a designated spot in the front page for notes so nurses/techs who aren't familiar with the surgeons/cases know what they need for the case. (positioning, medication, special instruments, bovie settings ... etc) The preference card is constantly updated, so it's a very useful tool for the staff.

I'm working in a for-profit hospital and we are now saving the "octopus" and "starfish" after each off-pump CABG to be sent back to the manufacturer to be re-sterilized. How common is this practice? Personally, I think it's disgusting. The devices are plastic with grooves, and I just can't imagine how the manufacturer can clean them thoroughly for extra usages.

I was pregnant 2 years ago with my son and I didn't have problems working in the OR. My manager was accommodating in putting me in non-flouro rooms and I was assigned 1st or 2nd lunch instead of 3rd or 4th lunch. The tough part for me during my pregnancy was lifting the heavy instruments and positioning the patients. I changed from working 12 hour shifts to 8 hour shifts during my 2nd trimester and my manager was acommodating to that also.

WOW! That's a high number of nurses witnessing wrong site surgery. At my hospital, we have to do a "time out" before each surgery. Usually the surgeon states the patient's name, type of procedure and site of procedure prior to incision. I have heard that there have been incidences at my hospital years ago, but none recently. The wrong site cases I knew about were neuro cases where patients were in prone positions.

I work in a level 1 trauma hospital and we have 2 RNs and 2 techs scheduled to work every night. On top of that, we usually have 2 RNs, 2 techs, 1 heart and 1 liver on call every night.

The study guideline is on the certification website. I posted the link for you. http://www.certboard.org/cnor/cert/study_group_curr.htm

Try http:http://www.scrubcaps4u.com There's a wide selection of choices and the prices are reasonable. This seller makes the scrub hats for the show "Scrubs" and she posted a few pictures of the cast on the website. The seller accepts PayPal and when you use this option, you get a 6th hat free for every 5 hats you purchase.

I work in a teaching hospital in Philly, and the heart nurses/scrubs get paid $2 and hour for call and 1 1/2 when they get called in. We have enough heart RNs and scrubs that they take call about once every 10 days. However, when they are on call on the weekend, they take 24 hour call. We usually have 4 - 5 other staff on call besides heart call, so we don't call the heart nurses/scrubs to come in for non-heart cases. When a heart RN/scrub is called in in the middle of the night to do a case, and the case goes past 2 a.m., he/she has the option to take the next day off but has to use vacation time to make up the hours. I have worked with a heart RN who has worked 16 hours the previous day on a weekend, and was offered a shorter day the following day so she could go home and rest.