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With all the literature out there supporting how toxic bovine smoke is I would love to see these implemented in our OR. Certain surgeons and staff are not the best at using smoke evacuators, and I feel the pencils would be great because the evacuator is already built in. Thoughts? Advice? Thanks all!

Is this a legal issue of some sort? When employees are injured on the job at the hospital I work for, we are made to go to another unassociated health clinic. Is this standard practice? Thanks!

Wow, just wow! I am speechless! I'd be on the AORN website printing material out like mad and handing it to your manager. The circumstances you describe are not only ignorant but downright dangerous!

Oooh disposable everything would be awesome! Yeah, we still use laundered sheets and blankets as well. Our only disposables are the sets for our open Jackson frames (chest pads, face pad, etc). I'll definitely do some asking around to see if they would consider going this route. Thank you for the link!

Our red boxes have the best of both worlds - once side is the foam for suture and the other is magnetic for blades. I would think it best to have both :)

My OR is currently split - half of the rooms have the heavy duty rubber safety straps with the seatbelt like metal clasp (easy to clean and disinfect) but the other rooms have the straps that are the same material as a seat belt with wide portions of velcro. The velcro straps are disgusting. I swear that whenever I utilize them I can see skin flakes and dust flying out of the velcro. I'm sure they are a major source of all kinds of nasty things. I realize that they are under the sterile drapes, but the point is they are often coming into contact with patient after patient, and there is no way they can be really cleaned. I was just curious as to others thoughts on these safety straps and weather they utilize them or not. I also really want to go to my manager and raise my concerns, so any advice on how to best address the situation would be helpful as well. Thanks all!

Age is really just a number. As long as you stay active and take care of your body there is no reason to believe you should not be able to do anything you do now. I know 50 year olds who are tri-athletes and I've seen patients in their 30's having CABG. It's really just a mindset and a way of living Plus, doing what you love keeps you young! Look at Mick Jagger, ha ha!

Working in CV-ICU this is completely foreign to me as the question may as well have read, "Would you get together with someone who is old and sick?" LOL! The only situation I can ever see this happening in would possibly be ER (anyone can end up here if injured, including the young, healthy, smart and attractive ) Also, I can't imagine going out with someone I had taken care of. I would have to meet them again way after the fact and under healthy circumstances to even think about it, and even then they would really have to knock me off my feet!

Thanks for the replies. I'm trying my best to try and be there when cases are scheduled - I think it's just slower because it's summer, too. They will be giving us fresh hearts off of orientation, but more likely 'stable' ones so we don't drown!

I'm a registered organ donor, and used to work for the organ donation agency in my state. My mother was an organ donor, she suffered a sudden and tragic brain death at a young age. When we were approached about donation, there was no question in our minds that she would have wanted to help others - it's just the kind of person she was. The thing is, no one working in a hospital caring for an acutely ill patient typically knows weather or not that person is an organ donor until the question is raised (as in when everything possible has been done to try and save that person, and all attempts have failed). When you are admitted to the hospital, you are not asked if you are an organ donor. If you are brought in by ambulance from a car wreck, no one is attempting to look through your wallet to find out if you are a registered donor. Unless one of my patients were to tell me they were a donor, I would have no way of knowing that. You are not branded with this information, and it would never be used against efforts to save your life. As a previous poster mentioned, the staff that handles organ donation is a completely separate entity from hospital staff. Hospital staff will only contact these people when brain death has occured, and they do so in every case, because it is the organ procurement agency that will approach the family to find out if the patient was a donor, not the hospital staff. The fear that efforts will not be made to save you if you are an organ donor is a common MYTH.

My hospital has both a CVICU and a CCU. Basically the CVICU takes care of the surgical patients (CABG's, valves, etc) and the CCU takes care of the medical patients (ends stage CHF, acute MI etc). If you're at a smaller hospital my guess would be that it's probably a combined medical/surgical unit.

Hi All~ I recently started a new position in CVICU. (Background is 3 years of cardiac step-down). My oreintation is 3 months long, starts with taking care of stable post-op patients that may still have chest tubes and pacer wires and progresses to taking care of patients fresh off the pump. I'm currently toward the end of my orientation and freaking out because I have not had much opportunity to take care of the patients straight out of surgery, as there are not necessarily cases always scheduled for days that I happen to be at work. In your opinion, how long of an orientation should a nurse have strictly taking care of these patients? My fear is that I'll really only get about 7 good days tops, if I'm lucky. I really like this unit and want to excel at my job, but the perceived lack of experience with the fresh CABG's is starting to worry me. Our hospital is very strict on orientation and will not extend it Any input is appreciated!