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Med surg tele, very heavy pts. We get 6 at night. Recently they've been cutting staff so now we sometimes take 7. This is very unsafe imo but they are more concerned about the budget than safety.

ER never calls to give report. Half the time transport doesn't call to let us know the pt is coming. I have never spoken to anyone from ER. I'm shocked this actually happens! I'm on med surg tele.

Why can't they keep their beliefs to themselves?

I'm currently a med surg tele nurse with almost a year of experience on this floor. I have 6 pts per shift, all of whom have varying levels of acuity. Sometimes I'll get heavy surgical patients, basic medical diabetes and cellulitis-type pts, and eve...

After spending a year and a half in the OR as a circulating nurse (right out of nursing school), I became very interested in anesthesia. I left the OR to eventually pursue CRNA school as my "end game", and I'm now on a very heavy post-surgical/teleme...

Thank you all for your advice! This week I am going to shadow a CRNA friend of mine and get some tips from her, so I'm definitely excited for that. I would like to get a job in ICU as soon as possible, but with my limited floor experience, I'm not s...

We have preop RNs that check in the patient. When the pt arrives, the preop RN is the one that receives them. They start IVs, get a height/weight, toilet, give preop meds, abx, make sure an NP/PA or resident does the H&P, obtain surgical consent,...

OR definitely has pros and cons. I won't repeat a lot of the great posts here so far, but some things that haven't been mentioned already are your nursing skills - You won't use any of these in the OR. CRNAs do the meds, blood, intraoperative monitor...

Wow. Just... Wow. I feel for you, trust me. I am in a very similar situation. First, do you get a morning break? At my facility, we get an AM break, lunch at 11, done by 3. We do 35-40 surgeries/day, though some weeks are lighter than others. In my s...

In my OR, the circulating nurse or whoever is assisting with the surgeon (resident or medical student with supervision/permission) will place the Foley. We have Surgical Technologists ("scrub techs") but not "OR techs", per se. Scrubs have gone to sc...

How are the people you work with? Are they team players? Do the cliques help non-clique co-workers? Do they cause drama or throw people under the bus? If you don't feel comfortable with your co-workers (on a fundamental level, not on a personality le...

We only have 1 team on Saturdays and Sundays, all shifts. If the "weekend team" needs a break because doctors have been doing lap chole after lap chole, the call team will be called in to give them a break/lunch, etc. Instead of standing up to the do...

I agree completely with this post, OP. I was one of the disillusioned new nurses that thought going to the OR would be a valuable experience, but it is nothing like I thought it would be. We are not respected at all in the OR, and the surgeon turn...

I've inserted a foley on a male patient, without resistance and no blood in the urine return, etc. When I removed it later, there was blood on the end. The balloon was fully deflated, and I don't think he had any documented prostate issues. I charted...

Interesting to see what they do at other ORs... Mine is going for the level 2 trauma cert, and we were told that "anyone" can do trauma and you don't need any special skills or experience. They said all you need is a blade, prep, drapes, and hemostat...

There are a lot of nursing skills that you will lose when you go to the OR and are no longer at the bedside, as with any specialty. That doesn't mean that you can't re-learn them though. If you want to try the OR, go for it. I work with plenty of new...

Definitely have an attorney look it over for you before deciding. I am in a similar situation and I may be seeking legal counsel as well. Long story short, I signed a 2-year commitment to my unit with a penalty of 5k if I break the contract. In addit...

I think the best way to deal with people like this is to handle it directly. When I was new, I always introduced myself to the surgeon and let them know that I am new and still learning. Sometimes it was my preceptor that introduced me; sometimes the...

In my OR, the RN does none of these things. It's always anesthesia. The doctor's don't care if the circulator is an RN or not, since we are not very well respected anyway.

I feel like this every single day. I am new to the OR, so maybe that has something to do with it, but a lot of people just ignore me or respond rudely. People know I'm new, and I get some pretty harsh treatment as a result. I hate it. My OR is the on...

"Doctors are coddled to" - oh YES! That is definitely true for me. I'm in the OR and the surgeons are pretty much allowed to treat others however they want, including techs, residents, and students. Most of the docs are great, but there are a few tha...

For interventional radiology, what types of procedures do you do exactly? Did you go through a "periop 101" lecture/clinical type program before you started on this unit? I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with the types of procedures you do, as I am re...

I second the primer suggestion. That and a setting/finishing powder would really help, in addition to a setting spray. Go to Sephora and ask them for help. They will match your foundation, hook you up with a primer, and anything else you may need. Th...

If you want to find out if you passed or failed, go to https://www.nursys.com/ Click on "Search Quick Confirm". Follow the instructions and click search. If you have/earned a nursing license, it will show up there. (FYI: Per the website, the only sta...

The Kaplan content videos are worth a watch. They will review nursing content, a 'quick and dirty' review. The other videos are a review of the practice tests with a detailed walk-through for each question. They explain the method used to answer the ...