ChrisNZ

I work in a small hospital with 5 operating rooms. We are able to wear cloth hats, the hospital washes them for us daily along with our scrubs.

We use the hovermats and our anaesthetics use another product called the hover wedge to reduce manual handling. They are great products.

Thank you for your excellent case study! I work in a facility where I don't often come across such ethical dilemmas as this. It was very interesting to think about and reflect upon how I would have handled this and then compare to the actual outcome.

I still do general as a part of my week to week, but am looking to re-assure that my focus on spine is not wasted. Thanks for your' response!

I worked as the equivalent of CNA (different names for the same role in my country) for three years while I studied. Whilst I was good and generally enjoyed the wards at the work I found it very tiring and at times frustrating, particular in regards to patients who just wouldn't improve. Upon graduation I was offered employment in a small private hospital in the OR. I work mon-fri, scrub, circulated and assist. I love what I do!! There are many avenues in nursing that you can take, it pays to investigate and find what works for you.

Hello all! I am a new graduate nurse working in the OR for seven months now. I work in a private hospital (I'm in a country with 'universal' healthcare) with seven OR's, we cover most specialties except maxfax and cosmetic surgery (we do breast cancer and reconstructive). Currently I work across ENT, Gynae, General, Urology, Breast, minor vascular procedures, Neuro-spine/ortho-spine. I have a particular interest in spine and it is my strongest area. I currently scrub, circulate and work as a surgical assistant. I can confidently work for any procedure. I order our equipment and implants for our lists. Anyway, thinking of the future. Is this a good speciality to focus on along with the other areas I work in? Are nurses who know spine sought after in general? I know the context of my country versus USA is somewhat different, but shares alot of similarities from what I have read on here. Thanks for your responses everyone!

I have to say it sounds awfully hard to break into scrubbing as a new RN in the US. In New Zealand I work in a private hospital and we have an all RN work force in our theatres. Depending on the list we have 2-4 RN's assigned to a theatre. We all take turns as surgical assistant, scrubbing, circulating which is great! Because somedays scrubbing just seems like the worst job and other days I can't look at paperwork and just want to scrub!

Today in a case which I was running we had a 'near miss incident'. I was working in an ENT OR for a tonsillectomy. The incident started when a more senior nurse whom was working alongside me turned up the settings on the Bovie from 8 to 30 coag (I'm not sure whether the units we use in my country differ to that of the US). Before plugging in attachments to the ESU generator I always confirm the settings with the surgeon, in this case I did so twice. As the scrub handed the diathermy over she also called the settings to the surgeon, again. Once the unit was activated the surgeon was very upset that it was put on too high. Luckily, no harm was done to the patient. Our surgeon is also very considerate that I am new to ENT too so debriefed with the team afterwards. We wrote up the incident as a communication breakdown due to non-patient related discussions in the room. In our debrief our surgeon told us that a coag of 30 for a tonsillectomy could cause the carotid to rupture as the electrical current found it's grounding point. I was under the impression that in modern ESU units that the return electrodes offered the paths of least resistance due to their conductive properties. My coleagues in the OR nor I, had ever heard this before. I could only imagine it being a risk if the tissue was cut through and actually pierced, particularly seeing as we use higher settings of coag when doing adenoids. I understand the importance of accurate communication and we have discussed as a team how this incident occurred and how we could prevent it in the future. Could anyone give me their thoughts on this? I am curious to learn and build upon my knowledge from this experience to improve patient safety and my own practice. I am particularly curious about the risks of having too high of a power setting, particularly for ENT surgery.

I would say the one year of med-surg is not essential. I was offered a position in the OR about six months before I graduated. Nothing is impossible!

MD: The diathermy (bovie) is not working (*not pressing the button properly*, on purpose as always) Me: Press the button properly. MD: Oh right. Seems every week there is some issue with the diathermy. Seems like every week the solution is to press the buttons properly.

My old employer did this with ICU nurses. Generally they did admission assessments and task nursing, no patient load incase they were needed back in ICU.

At my facility people usually do online education, help in other OR's, stock room work or they sit in the tea room until their shift is over.

I'm not sure what the laws are like in the US but as a student doing my final clinicals in the OR in my country I was able to act as scrub as well as assist for procedures which required an assistant (holding retractors ect ect). My favourite was assisting with Cardiac procedures, it still kinda feels surreal I was allowed to do so much. I was hired into that hospital as a graduated nurse and am loving it!

It'll take time, but you will get there eventually. One day you'll look back and think 'I can't believe I used to stress over _____' I started in community, then moved to a facility similar to yours finishing in the hospital setting. I now have a new grad job in the operating theatre. It's been an amazing work life so far and very rewarding! It'll be hard but if you stick at it, slowly but surely you'll get quicker/better. I think alot of the older staff sometimes forget that they once knew nothing too.

No employer of mine ever cared for anything such as union/student association involvement. I would ever go as far to say that it could potentially hinder employment. I had one charge nurse tell me that she preferred those without such involvement as they 'tend to complain more about their rights in the work place, instead of just working'. I disagreed with the sentiments of said charge nurse. However, getting a job is all about playing the game. Find out what they want and give it to them. But also find out what they dont want and hude it from them.